Kyle Clifford becomes latest murderer to refuse to face grieving family

Triple murderer Kyle Clifford has become the latest killer to refuse to face their victims’ family, as he refused to attend his sentencing hearing.

Cambridge Crown Court heard the 26-year-old defendant declined to attend in person or via video link, and a judge did not order him to be forcibly brought before the court as he did not want him “potentially disrupting” proceedings.

Mr Justice Bennathan told the court: “The defendant was asked to attend here or on the video link and refused, and I then had an inquiry from Belmarsh as to whether I would order restraints so he should be brought to the video room.

“I have declined on the basis that the idea of a man in a wheelchair being put in restraints and potentially disrupting these proceedings is simply not appropriate or suitable.

“If the defendant lacks the courage to face today, so be it, but I’m conscious part of this morning will be people paying tribute to the three women who died, and I’m not having that disrupted by anything.”

Downing Street said killers who refused to turn up to court were “cowardly” and the law was being changed so judges have the power to compel them to attend.

The defendant was later convicted of raping Louise during the July 9 attacks after a four-day trial.

He did not attend a single day of his trial, as the court was told he refused to leave his cell at HMP Belmarsh.

Clifford is not the first killer to refuse to attend court proceedings.

The 18-year-old was removed from his own sentencing twice for repeatedly shouting, in what the judge said was a bid to avoid facing the victims of his crime.

Judges could soon have powers to force criminals to appear in the dock when they are sentenced.

The change in the law is expected to be made in the Victims, Courts and Public Protection Bill, which will be laid in Parliament in the next few months.

Its purpose is to make sure victims and bereaved family members can see criminals face the consequences of their actions.

In response to Clifford’s refusal to attend court, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “Cowardly killers like this individual, who refuse to look grieving families in the eye as judges hand down their sentences, deny victims and their families the opportunity to tell them the horrific ways that they’ve destroyed lives.

“That’s why the Government is committed to changing the law so that courts have the power to order the most serious offenders to attend their sentencing hearings, with reasonable force being used when necessary, and criminals who refuse will face being locked up for longer, ensuring that they face up to justice rather than hiding away from the grief and anger of their victims’ families.”

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer promised to carry on the pledge to change the law, first made by his predecessor Rishi Sunak, when he met the mother of murdered nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel .

Thomas Cashman, the gunman who killed Olivia as he chased a drug dealer who had tried to run into her home in Knotty Ash, Liverpool, did not appear in court to hear his life sentence in April 2023.

Other high-profile cases in which defendants have sparked public outcry by not appearing at their own sentencing hearings include:

– Lucy Letby, who murdered seven babies and attempted to kill seven more between June 2015 and June 2016 while she worked as a nurse on the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital, was absent from her sentencing.

– Jordan McSweeney, who killed law graduate Zara Aleena, 35, as she walked home from a night out in Ilford, east London, in 2022, failed to appear to hear his life sentence handed down.

– Koci Selamaj refused to appear in the dock as he received life with at least 36 years behind bars, for murdering primary school teacher Sabina Nessa, after travelling to London to carry out an attack on a random woman in 2021.