'Drag killers into dock to face sentence' judges urged

JUDGES should use their existing powers to allow prison staff to use “reasonable force” to get defendants into the dock for sentencing, say former police officers.

- By Jon Austin

It comes after cowardly Kyle Clifford became the latest high-profile killer to refuse to attend court to hear their punishment meted out.

On Tuesday, Clifford, 26, received three whole-life sentences at Cambridge Crown Court for the murders of former girlfriend Louise Hunt, 25, her sister Hannah, 28, and their mother Carol, 61, at their home in Bushey, Hertfordshire, last July.

At a trial the week before, at which he also did not appear, he had been found guilty of raping Louise before killing her.

Other killers who have refused to attend sentencing include Thomas Cashman, 35, who shot dead Olivia Pratt-Korbel, nine, in Liverpool in August 2022, serial child killer Lucy Letby, 35, and Jordan McSweeney, 31, who sexually assaulted and beat to death Zara Aleena, 35, in Ilford, east London, in June 2022.

After Clifford's refusal, Farah Naz, Ms Aleena's aunt, gave a radio interview saying new powers must be brought in.

But judges already have the power to make an order for prison staff to use “reasonable force” to get defendants to attend any part of a prosecution, including sentencings.