TRIPLE murderer Jordan Monaghan is at the Court of Appeal today to find out if his 40-year minimum jail term has been deemed “unduly lenient”.
Monaghan, 30, who murdered his two children and his new partner, is appearing via a video link from HMP Wakefield, dubbed ‘Monster Mansion’ due to the high number of serious offenders under its roof.
His case is being heard alongside fellow murderer Wayne Couzens – the police officer who killed Sarah Everard – and Thomas Hughes, convicted for the manslaughter of his son Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, also appearing via video link, Hughes also from Wakefield and Couzens from HMP Frankland in Durham, which used to house the Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe.
Emma Tustin – who murdered six-year-old Arthur – and Ian Stewart, who murdered his wife then murdered his fiancée, children’s author Helen Bailey, six years later, both declined to attend the hearing.
Decisions on their cases will be given in writing at a later date after each was heard today.
Tom Little QC, representing the Attorney General, summarised the offending of Jordan Monaghan, describing it as being of “exceptionally high” seriousness, with there being “no mitigation here at all”.
He told the court: “Over a seven-year period, this offender either killed … or attempted to murder four individuals.”
Mr Little added: “Underlying all of that, the clear rationale or intention behind these offences was to try to distract his then partner from his gambling habit and maintain control over her despite her repeated attempts to free herself from him.”
Mr Little added of one of Monaghan’s victims, Evie Adams: “If that was not enough, the third murder was one involving significant planning and preparation involving a painful death having, in short, been tricked to take strong forms of medication which ultimately killed her, and that was committed whilst on police bail.”
Monaghan smothered three-week-old daughter Ruby on New Year’s Day in 2013 as she slept in her Moses basket; eight months later he smothered his 21 month old son Logan while in a cubicle at Waves swimming baths.
He wasn’t charged for either death until a review in 2018, and while on bail after being arrested for those murders he murdered his partner Evie Adams with a cocktail of drugs on October 2019, faking a suicide note to try and cover up his crimes.
He was rearrested in January 2021 and charged with all three murders, and after a ten-week trial was found guilty in December and jailed for life with a minimum term of 40 years.
Following a request by a member of the public, Attorney General Suella Braverman referred Monaghan’s case to the Court of Appeal under the Unduly Lenient Sentence Scheme.
Benjamin Myers QC, for Monaghan, stressed the high bar needed for a whole-life term, which means the criminal would die in prison.
He told the court: “A whole-life order is an extreme sentence for an extreme level of offending.
“There has to be some caution not to apply whole-life orders with a readiness that would lead to an escalation in their use.”
A decision on Monaghan's sentence has yet to be given; the hearing of the five sentence reviews finished today and a decision will be given in writing at a later date.
The Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett said: “We propose to take time to consider our decisions in these very difficult and tragic cases.”
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