Triple murderer Nicholas Prosper should be given a whole-life order for the “exceptional” killings of his mother and two siblings, the Court of Appeal has heard.
Prosper was jailed for a minimum term of 49 years, less 188 days already spent in custody, in March after admitting killing his mother, Juliana Falcon, 48, sister Giselle Prosper, 13, and 16-year-old brother Kyle Prosper at their family flat in Luton, Bedfordshire, on September 13 2023.
The 19-year-old also admitted weapons charges after plotting a mass shooting at his former primary school in the town.
The Solicitor General has referred his sentence to the Court of Appeal as “unduly lenient”, claiming that he should be given a whole-life order, meaning that he would never be released.
If three senior judges rule that the sentence should be increased, Prosper would become the first person aged between 18 and 20 to be given a whole-life sentence.
Barristers for Prosper, who currently will not be released until at least his late 60s, told judges that the sentence “cannot be said to be unduly lenient”.
Tom Little KC, for the Solicitor General, told the hearing in London: “What the facts reveal is a case which, on any view, was exceptional, even in the context of a murder.”
He continued: “It was a murder of three people, two of them were children, including the intended rape of the sister. That did not take place, but it had been intended.
“The murders were committed one after the other in their own home, heard by neighbours and each was aware they were being killed by their son or sibling, and one pleaded, that is the brother, for his life.”
He added: “It was meant to achieve national and international notoriety.”
In written submissions, he said that a whole-life term was “just punishment”.
He said: “The age of the offender and his guilty pleas, although relevant to the ultimate decision, did not inexorably lead to or mean that this was a case in which a whole-life order was not appropriate.”
After shooting dead his siblings and mother, and stabbing his brother more than 100 times, Prosper hid for more than two hours before flagging down police officers in a nearby street and showing them where he had hidden a loaded shotgun and 33 cartridges near playing fields.
He had bought the firearm and 100 cartridges from a legitimate firearms dealer the day before the murders after forging a gun licence.
Rules were changed in 2022 to allow younger defendants aged 18 to 20 to receive whole-life orders.
Sentencing Prosper at Luton Crown Court in March, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said that a whole-life term could only be given to someone in that age bracket if a court deemed “that the seriousness of the combination of offences is exceptionally high”.
She stopped short of imposing a whole-life order in Prosper’s case, as he was stopped from carrying out the school shooting, having murdered his family earlier than he intended after his mother woke up.
She continued that while he was “indisputably a very dangerous young man”, the risk to the public was met with a life sentence.
David Bentley KC, for Prosper, said on Wednesday that it was “very difficult” to say how a 49-year sentence “can be said to be unduly lenient”.
He said: “The reality is that with the existing sentence, the earliest date he could actually be considered for parole is in his late 60s, and the dangerousness is covered by the life sentence.
“As the court knows, if he remains considered to be dangerous, he never comes out anyway, so a life sentence is a life sentence, and the minimum term simply provides a time when it can be reviewed.”
He continued: “We accept that had it been someone aged 21 or over, the whole-life order would have been made.
“However, the judge, we say quite rightly, said this test is so high and there are factors here which allow her to stand back from that.”
He also said that Prosper “voluntarily separated himself” from the weapon after deciding not to carry out the school shooting.
Prosper watched proceedings via a video link from HMP Belmarsh, at times with his head in his hands.
The Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, Mr Justice Wall and Mr Justice Goss could give judgment later on Wednesday.
