Murderer brothers must stay in jail until 2011

2:36pm Friday 14th December 2007

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TWO brothers jailed for life for a brutal street murder will spend a total of 30 years behind bars before they have any hope of being freed.

Thomas Anthony Aspinall, 35, of Windermere Close, and his brother John Aspinall, 34, of Gloucester Road, along with Paul Smyth, 29, of Pendle Drive, all Blackburn, were convicted at Preston Crown Court of the July 1996 murder of Kevin Sudall, in Cicely Lane.

They were jailed for life on June 24 1997, after a two-week trial.

Mr Justice Flaux, after reviewing the cases at London's Royal Courts of Justice, set the tariffs on the Aspinall brothers' life sentences - the amount of time they must spend behind bars before they can apply for release on parole - at 15 years apiece.

The court heard that Mr Sudall, 22, of View Road, Darwen, was attacked in the early hours of July 6 1996 as he left what was then known as Club Euro, in Blackburn.

He died in the intensive care unit of Royal Preston Hospital later that day.

Just a fortnight before he would have celebrated his 23rd birthday.

Mr Sudall died during surgery to remove a blood clot from the surface of his brain.

The court heard that apparent bad feeling between two groups of youths had led to him being punched to the ground before his head was repeatedly kicked and stamped on as he lay motionless on the pavement.

One witness described Mr Sudall's head being struck as if someone was "stamping on a beetle".

Setting the tariffs on the two brothers, Mr Justice Flaux said of them both: "None of the (standard) aggravating features was present in this case.

"However, in my judgment, the very nature of this unprovoked and senseless attack on a complete stranger is in itself an aggravating feature.

"The only mitigating factors which would seem to be present in this case are a lack of premeditation and the absence of an intent to kill.

"As the trial judge rightly concluded, this was a sudden and cold-blooded attack, swiftly and brutally executed.

The applicants have shown no remorse."

He rejected both brothers' submissions that they had made "exceptional progress" since being locked away, and that their tariffs should be reduced for that reason.

When time spent on remand is taken into account, the decision means that both brothers will be able to apply for parole in the summer of 2011.

However, they will not be freed unless they can persuade the parole board that they no longer pose a danger to the public.

When, and if, released, they will remain subject to perpetual "life licence" and liable to be recalled to jail should they put "a foot wrong" again.