Man who murdered pregnant girlfriend has 42-year term increased to whole-life order
A man who murdered his pregnant girlfriend after being released from prison on licence must spend the rest of his life in jail, the court of appeal has ruled after finding that the original 42-year sentence was “too lenient”.Alana Odysseos, 32, was in the early stages of pregnancy with her third child when Shaine March, now 48, killed her at her home in Walthamstow, east London, in July last year.She died at the scene from 23 slash and stab wounds.March had been released from prison on a life licence in 2013 after fatally stabbing Andre Drummond, 17, in the neck at a McDonald’s restaurant in south London in January 2000.He was jailed for life in October last year with a minimum term of 42 years, but after calls from Conservative MPs, the solicitor general referred the sentence to the court of appeal.
The government’s lawyers told a hearing on Thursday that March should have been given a whole-life order, which is reserved for the most serious murder cases,March also challenged the length of his sentence, with his barristers arguing it was “manifestly excessive”,Lord Justice Edis, sitting with Mr Justice Cavanagh and Judge Robinson, said in a ruling: “The sentence was unduly lenient,“We quash it, and we quash the minimum-term order that the judge made, and substitute in its place a whole-life order, which means that the offender will never be released,”On a video link from HMP Belmarsh, March apologised to members of Odysseos’s family.
He said: “I just want to say that I am sorry.”Odysseos was among the women whose deaths were included in the Guardian’s killed women count – a project highlighting the toll and tragedy of femicide in the UK.She was described as a “brilliant mother” who “completely doted” on her daughters.Jurors in last year’s Old Bailey trial were not told that March had been convicted of murder before.Tom Little KC, for the solicitor general, told the court in written submissions that March and Odysseos had argued about her pregnancy.
In the final hours before the murder, she was heard to say: “I don’t want to kill my baby,” the court was told.She was later seen outside the property, clutching her right side.Bleeding from multiple stab wounds to her body, she pointed at the defendant standing nearby and shouted: “Shaine stabbed me, he stabbed me.Help, help.”Sentencing March last year, Mr Justice Murray said the murder involved “prolonged and excessive violence” but that he did not consider the case to be one where “the need for lifelong imprisonment is clear beyond doubt”.
He based this on four factors, including that March sustained a traumatic brain injury when he was a teenager, which affected his ability to regulate his emotions, and that both murders were “apparently spontaneous”.But Little told the court of appeal on Thursday that a whole-life order was “just punishment” and that there was a “constellation of aggravating features” in the case.In court, he said: “Properly analysed, this case should never have left the categorisation as a whole-life order case.”The solicitor general, Ellie Reeves, said: “There is no room for violence against women and girls and I welcome the court’s decision to increase Shaine March’s prison sentence, removing this extremely dangerous offender off our streets and protecting anyone else suffering harm.”The shadow justice minister, Kieran Mullan, said: “I know Alana’s family are delighted at this outcome and I am very pleased we have been able to help them get the justice they deserved.
Though of course I still believe in too many other cases of murder, when a whole-life order would represent justice, very few people get it.So there is more we need to do.”
Chess: iconic Reykjavik Open sparks memory of Bobby Fischer from 1973
The nine-round Reykjavik Open, which began on Wednesday afternoon at the Harpa Conference Centre and which continued with two rounds on Thursday, is an iconic event. It was first played as an all-play-all in 1964, when Mikhail Tal won, and is close to the Hotel Reykjavik Natura, formerly the Hotel Loftleidir, which featured prominently in the epic Bobby Fischer v Boris Spassky match of 1972.The top seed in the capacity entry of 422 players is Iran’s Amin Tabatabaei, the only 2700-rated player in the field, with Romania’s Bogdan-Daniel Deac (2655) next, and the veteran Ukrainian Vasyl Ivanchuk (2624) the fourth seed.England has a large contingent of more than 20, although most of them are low-rated amateurs. GM Matthew Wadsworth (2522) is the 21st seed, and GM Simon Williams (2443) the 39th, while WIM Bodhana Sivanandan, 11, is targeting her second WGM norm
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Former England captain seeks inspiration from the pioneering Kevin Pietersen as he heads a 12-strong contingent of compatriots in 2026’s tournament“I will always be grateful for what the IPL gave me,” Kevin Pietersen tells Jos Buttler. “It gave me a lot of controversy, I earned a lot of money, but it also saved my career because I made trusting relationships that I was able to call upon to give longevity to my career.”The conversation is on Buttler’s podcast, For The Love Of Cricket, released on Tuesday, with the pair hailing their experiences of playing in the Indian Premier League. (For the love of content, they also discuss Pietersen’s new career as a YouTuber.) The 45-year-old was there in the early years, rebelling against English cricket’s uneasy relationship with a revolutionary startup, exhilarated to call Rahul Dravid and Jacques Kallis his teammates
Aryna Sabalenka sinks Rybakina to set up Miami Open final showdown with Gauff
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AFL scratching its head on decline in Indigenous participation as weight of history takes toll | Sean Gorman
I write this having come from the funeral of the West Perth and Buffaloes great Bill Dempsey. I mention this because Dempsey is the first Northern Territory player to play on the MCG. He was a trailblazer that set the scene so many other Territorians like Long, Rioli, Burgoyne, White and McLeod could follow. Demspey’s legacy came about by chance, as he was the support act for the talented Darwin recruit Jimmy Anderson when they both came down to Melbourne in the late 1950s. Anderson lasted a few weeks
Castleford’s sensational spell blows Bradford away to kick off birthday celebrations
It is fair to assume neither Castleford Tigers nor Bradford Bulls will be in title contention later this year, not least based on what we saw here from both teams. However, in terms of an appetiser to set the scene for Super League’s 30th anniversary weekend, this West Yorkshire derby was about as entertaining as you could have hoped for if you were a neutral.The beauty of early-season games like these is that narratives that have been formed can be quickly dismantled in the blink of an eye and, given defensive displays they have put in so far, it was hard not to feel that was perhaps the case on this occasion.With three wins from their opening five since promotion, Bradford have rightly been heralded as a major positive of 2026. In contrast, Castleford have won only once and arrived at this game off the back of a 72-6 defeat at Warrington, one of their heaviest in the Super League era
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