OK, those of you holding out for vengeance. Here in the UK a toddler was tormented and killed a few years ago - a crime that made a phenomenal impact at the time, and rightly so. His murderers turned out to be two kids aged 10, one of whom had had a particularly disturbed life (though maybe not as bad as Sexton's.) A few months younger, and they'd have been below the age for criminal responsibility.

They were sentenced to eight years each. These sentences did not match the popular mood, and were increased to 15 years by a government minister. Some people thought even 15 years was not enough. But the right of politicians to interfere at all was challenged, and now Britain's senior (criminal law) judge has just reset the sentence at eight years. It means they are likely to be free next February.

The victim's mother is distraught. She has my sympathy. But no-one disputes that the prisoners have shown enormous remorse; they have been highly responsive to counselling, education etc, and are no longer any sort of threat to society. If they stayed detained, they would move into the adult prison population. What chance they would emerge from that experience as law-abiding citizens? I think that, against the odds (because the British system is no better than anyone else's), we've got here the best possible outcome from a deeply distressing case.