Legal Update - 23 October 2025
Two additional statutory aggravating factors have been added to paragraph 9 of Schedule 21 to the Sentencing Act 2020, applying from 23rd October 2025. These aggravating factors will be considered when determining the minimum term in relation to the mandatory life sentence for murder, and are as follows:
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Inserted as sub-paragraph 9(bb), the fact that the murder was connected with the end of the offender’s intimate personal relationship with the victim, the victim intending to bring about the end of that intimate personal relationship, or a belief by the offender that the relationship had ended or that the victim intended to end the relationship.
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Inserted as sub-paragraph 9(ca), the fact that the murder involved strangulation, suffocation or asphyxiation.
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