SEAN LUKE’s killers have been sentenced to minimum terms of detention in prison for the brutal killing of the six-year-old schoolboy from Orange Valley, Couva, in 2006.

A minimum sentence of 17 years, six months and 13 days at the court’s pleasure has been imposed on Akeel Mitchell, with period reviews every three years. His next review comes up on September 13, 2024.

His accomplice, Richard Chatoo, received a sentence of 11 years, six months and 13 days at the court’s pleasure. He too will return in three years for a sentence review by a judge.

Sentencing the men on Wednesday, Justice Lisa Ramsumair-Hinds said detention at the court’s pleasure did not operate as a “term of years,” nor was it a precise indication of when either will be released.

She said any early release would depend on their conduct while in prison, but even then, they will continue to “serve a sentence” for the rest of their lives.

“You have a lot of work to do,” she told them as she left them with the parting words: “May God have mercy on your souls.”

Earlier in her sentencing, she made it clear the death penalty was off the cards for the two, who were 13 and 16 when they killed Luke. She said the law does not allow it.

“There will be no proverbial pound of flesh,” she said.

However, she acknowledged she was not persuaded that either of them had been adequately penalised for the “bizarre and sadistic manner of death” inflicted on Luke.

She also admitted she did not think it was in their or anyone’s interest for either to return to society any time soon.

On July 23, Ramsumair-Hinds found Mitchell and Chatoo guilty of the six-year-old’s murder at the end of a judge-only trial.

She had deferred sentencing on two occasions to give attorneys time to file their written submissions and receive the prison’s bio-social report and assessments of both men.

Mitchell’s attorneys had suggested a starting point of 18-20 years and Chatoo’s 15-18 years. The prosecution suggested 30-35 years. The judge began with a starting point of 35 years for Mitchell and 33 for Chatoo.

They both had 15 years, five months, and 18 days shaved off their term of imprisonment after upward and downward adjustments were made for factors which went for and against them and their conduct.

When she delivered her verdict in July, Ramsumair-Hinds said Luke’s killing was a planned and frenzied assault. Mitchell, she said, buggered Luke, while Chatoo assisted and encouraged him, after which Mitchell sodomised Luke with a cane stalk.

The State’s case rested mainly on circumstantial evidence, which featured the testimony of two other boys who said they last saw Luke enter the cane field where his body was found with Mitchell and Chatoo; the DNA evidence from the sperm fraction pointing to Mitchell; and the boy’s body found sodomised with a cane stalk.

Mitchell’s DNA profile was found on Luke’s underwear, but none of Chatoo’s was found on either Luke’s clothing or the cane stalk.

At their virtual trial, both men denied killing Luke. Mitchell raised an alib