{"id":18277,"date":"2021-03-09T13:35:34","date_gmt":"2021-03-09T18:35:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=18277"},"modified":"2021-03-09T13:35:34","modified_gmt":"2021-03-09T18:35:34","slug":"ellies-law-parents-of-murdered-girl-win-sentencing-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2021\/03\/09\/ellies-law-parents-of-murdered-girl-win-sentencing-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"Ellie’s Law: Parents of murdered girl win sentencing fight"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A mother who fought to change the law around murder says her daughter would be “very proud”.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Announced on Tuesday, Ellie’s Law, named after Wiltshire teenager Ellie Gould, means teenage killers could face sentences of up to 27 years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Ellie was\u00a0stabbed to death<\/a>\u00a0by her ex-boyfriend Thomas Griffiths in May 2019.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He was 17 at the time, so received a more lenient sentence than an adult defendant would have.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The\u00a0change in the law<\/a>, announced by Justice Secretary Robert Buckland, is the culmination of a two-year campaign by Ellie’s parents.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Along with the mother of Poppy Devey-Waterhouse from Frome, Somerset,\u00a0who was murdered in similar circumstances<\/a>, Mrs Gould says she also wants sentences increased for killers who use a weapon they find at the scene.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Both Ellie, 17, and Poppy, 24, were\u00a0killed with knives<\/a>\u00a0their ex-boyfriends found in their homes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Poppy<\/span><\/div>
Poppy Devey-Waterhouse and Ellie Gould were murdered by their ex-boyfriends<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Unable to accept she wanted to break up with him, Griffiths attacked Ellie at her family home in Calne, Wiltshire, killing her with a kitchen knife.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Although he was 18 by the time he was sentenced to a\u00a0minimum of 12-and-a-half years<\/a>\u00a0in prison, his age at the time of the crime was a factor in the minimum jail term he could face.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Despite the Gould family taking their case to the Court of Appeal, it was not ruled unduly lenient.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“Griffiths was treated like a 10 year-old but he was only five months off being 18,” said Ellie’s mother Carole.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Ellie’s Law will see someone like Griffiths treated more like an adult.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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