It was right today that Levi Bellfield was sentenced to spend the rest of his days in prison, with no prospect of parole.  He is an evil killer who, far from showing remorse, has shown a degree of cold blooded callousness that must be punished.

What was wrong, however, was that he was able to chose not to attend court to hear his sentence handed down to him in person.  Having forced the families of his two victims to sit through weeks of evidence and I understand, showing them nothing but contempt throughout the trial, he should have been forced to attend the court.  To allow him to stay away was yet another slap in the face for the families who needed to see him sentenced today.

We must not lose sight of the bigger picture - an evil killer has been put behind bars - but I am not sure that we should be giving convicted criminals the right to elect to stay away from their own sentencing.