Editorial: The most evil murderers still get lenient jail terms even though the minimum time life prisoners spend behind bars is longer than it was

​By the standards of British murder sentences, the prison term given to Deng Chol Majek yesterday was hefty.

But it was still too short.

The Sudanese asylum seeker was jailed for at least 29 years for the murder of a woman who was working at the migrant hotel where he was housed (see page 2). This very generous nation gave this illegal immigrant shelter at UK taxpayer expense, despite him entering the country on a small boat, and his accommodation in Walsall was staffed by the kind Rhiannon, among others.

Majek can be seen on CCTV watching Rhiannon, 27, as she worked at the hotel reception, with an inexplicable and terrifying look of hate on his face. He followed her to a train station and stabbed her to death with a screwdriver. Later, this fiend danced near the site of his crime.

The UK has not had the death penalty for more than 60 years. That might have been the Christian response but soon after its abolition life sentences became lenient. By the 1970s, the tariff (minimum time actually spent in prison) in a life sentence was a disgraceful 13 years. Now it has edged up closer to 20 years, and over that for the worst crimes.

Kornelijus Bracas, from Tresna Park in Randalstown, 27, recently got a minimum 24 years for murderinng his sister in her home, but with time already served he might be free in his late 40s.

Colin Howell will be free in a few years after his 21 year minimum term is up for one of the most pre-meditated, wicked murders ever in NI, and his calculating accomplice Hazel Stewart too when her 18 years is done (she pleads coercive control to excuse her key role in a plot that a child would know was evil).

Deng Chol Majek’s age is unknown but he will be free in his early 50s. If execution is deemed too harsh even for a man such such as him then a 50-year minimum term would ensure he only sees freedom as an old man, if ever.