Aaron De Silva has sentence cut for Joseph Griffiths Hackney murder

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-30525705

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A killer sentenced to life for stabbing a pensioner 22 times has had his minimum prison term reduced.

Aaron De Silva, 22, was found guilty in February at the Old Bailey of breaking into 73-year-old Joseph Griffiths' Fulham home and killing him.

Three Court of Appeal judges agreed to reduce the minimum term from 32 to 28 years before he can apply for parole.

They concluded the overall sentence was manifestly excessive for such a young offender.

Mr Griffiths was discovered in a pool of blood in November 2012 at his home in Hazlebury Road where he had lived for 50 years.

The court heard that after the attack De Silva walked back to the Earls Court hostel where he was staying and listened to music.

Mr Justice Blake said: "This was a dreadful crime where a much loved husband and father was brutally attacked in his own home by an offender intent on aggravated burglary.

"Nevertheless, his age at the time is a significant factor in mitigating his culpability: young offenders are more likely to be impulsive, unthinking, and respond to situations with excessive and gratuitous force."

De Silva had 31 previous convictions for robbery, burglary and carrying a knife.

He had tried at his trial to plead guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, but the prosecution refused to accept the plea and he was tried for murder.

Successive psychiatric reports also found that while De Silva had a personality disorder, he was suffering no mental illness at the time of the killing.