Victim's family hit out at killers' jail terms
[caption id="attachment_91619" align="alignright" width="346" caption="Carl Keatley, left, and Jordan Carroll"][/caption] The family of a father-of-five beaten to death in a horrific attack just yards from his Staffordshire home today criticised the "feeble" sentences imposed on his killers, and accused the Government of failing to stop "feral youths" from terrorising communities.
The family of a father-of-five beaten to death in a horrific attack just yards from his Staffordshire home today criticised the "feeble" sentences imposed on his killers, and accused the Government of failing to stop "feral youths" from terrorising communities.
Factory worker Michael Eccles, aged 43, was left with a shattered eye socket, collapsed lung, broken ribs and stamping injuries covering his battered body after he was brutally assaulted by Jordan Carroll and Carl Keatley.
Keatley, 21, was jailed for a minimum of 13 years and 16-year-old Jordan Carroll for at least 11 years for the murder of Mr Eccles.
They will not be considered for parole before they have served those minimum terms after being convicted of kicking and stamping Mr Eccles to death outside his Lichfield home at around 8pm on January 25. The killers, from Lichfield, were found guilty of murder earlier this year after attacking Mr Eccles.
Speaking after the pair were sentenced for murder at Birmingham Crown Court yesterday Mr Eccles' brother-in-law John Bayliss launched a stinging attack on the Government.
He said: "We as a family are very disappointed with the sentences that have been passed down. It is no surprise that innocent people are being murdered when the consequences are so feeble.
"This is not justice. These evil people have been found guilty of murder and have shown no remorse at all. Life should mean life. That Keatley managed to smile when he had just been given 13 years for murder is despicable.
"The Government must see that society is broken. Until there are some serious consequences to their actions, the anti-social element will continue their reign of terror."
Keatley, of Greencroft, Lichfield, and Carroll, of Windmill Close, who was just 15 at the time of the attack, inflicted massive injuries on Mr Eccles who died in hospital the following day.
It was Carroll's mother Sandra who brought her son to justice by shopping him to police, along with her estranged husband Edward Carroll, who was jailed for three years for perverting the course of justice after washing blood from his son's face and clothes.
