Jail term of child killer is upheld

Jun 3 2008 by Neil Mckay, The Journal

A RULING that North child killer Colin Bainbridge must spend at least 24 years behind bars was upheld yesterday in a High Court review.

Mr Justice Coulson said the minimum term imposed for raping and murdering nine-year-old Laura Kane, from Penshaw, Sunderland, was “entirely justified”.

The judge added that the sentence for what was an appalling crime was, if anything, “too low“ – and he would have increased it, had it been open to him to do so.

And last night Laura’s father, Martin Kane, from Houghton-le-Spring, near Sunderland, welcomed the decision, saying: “I wish the judge had been able to give him longer.

“The man is pure evil, yet he could be out on the streets when he is still in his late fifties.

“I don’t know how he had the nerve to apply to have his sentence reduced, he raped and murdered a nine-year-old girl, for goodness sake.”

Bainbridge, now 43, of Murton, County Durham, was jailed for life at Newcastle Crown Court in June 2000. After the sentencing judge Mr Justice Nelson said he was a “danger to young girls”.

The odd job man was given life for the murder and 15 years to run concurrently on the rape charge, with a recommendation that he serve 22 years before being considered for release on licence.

Later, the then Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, recommended 20 years, but in August 2001 the Home Secretary set a minimum term of 24 years.

Yesterday, Mr Justice Coulson, sitting at London’s High Court, said the type of review he was carrying out under the 2003 Criminal Justice Act meant that it was not open to him to impose a longer period in custody, but only to consider whether the early release provisions of the Act could be activated after a shorter period. The judge described how Bainbridge was found guilty of raping and murdering Laura at his home in Calvert Terrace, Murton.

In March 1999, he was entrusted with the care of the nine-year-old, who was the daughter of a female friend.

He took her from her home and tied her up and raped her in a violent manner, causing considerable injury. In order to prevent detection, he suffocated and killed the child and hid her body under the floorboards of his house. Later, he went to the pub with Laura’s mother, Carol, saying nothing to her mother as she became more and more concerned about her daughter’s safety.

The body lay undetected for 10 days before Bainbridge was arrested and charged with murder. The judge said there was a series of aggravating features, including “the vulnerability of the victim, who was only nine at the time she was raped and murdered“.

Bainbridge had abused a position of trust and also concealed Laura’s body.