Crown protests at 'lenient' sentence for vicar's killer

The sentence given to a teenager found guilty of murdering an elderly clergyman has been referred to the Court of Appeal as "unduly lenient", the Crown Prosecution Service will announce today.

The sentence given to a teenager found guilty of murdering an elderly clergyman has been referred to the Court of Appeal as "unduly lenient", the Crown Prosecution Service will announce today.

Christopher Hunnisett, 18, who lodged with the Rev Ronald Glazebrook, 81, in St Leonards, East Sussex, drowned the priest in his bath and hacked his body into pieces, a trial at Lewes Crown Court was told in June.

With the help of a friend, Jason Groves, 18, of Hastings, he buried the body parts at two places in the county. Both teenagers had pleaded guilty to conspiring to prevent his lawful burial.

Hunnisett, as he was under 18 at the time of the offence in April last year, was ordered to be detained at Her Majesty's Pleasure for the murder and sentenced to four years in a young offenders' institution, to run concurrently, for conspiring to preventing the lawful burial of the cleric's body. "I cannot think of a worse way to meet your death," Mr Justice Moses told the teenager. "Your behaviour in killing and cutting up his body belies a determination in your cruelty towards him beyond your age."

Groves, who acted as a look-out while Hunnisett cut up the body, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in a young offenders' institution.

The judge later recommended Hunnisett should serve a minimum of five-and-a-half years, less the 432 days he had already spent in custody.

Mr Glazebrook, a divorcee, first met Hunnisett at the local church, where the teenager had been a server. The pair shared a love of the sea and the teenager began helping the clergyman with jobs around the house and on his boat, the Sulis, as well as with the gardening and walking the dog.

After the verdict, Christine Freeman, 46, Mr Glazebrook's daughter, described Hunnisett as "cold and calculating".

Alison Saunders, the Chief Crown Prosecutor of Sussex, is expected to say today: "Hunnisett planned the murder in a cold, callous and calculated way and betrayed the trust of Rev Glazebrook, who helped Hunnisett by letting him stay in his home because he was experiencing personal problems.

"Glazebrook clearly felt that Hunnisett was a decent boy who needed help. He gave him a taste of some of the good things in life which, due to their deteriorating relationship, were about to be taken away. Glazebrook wanted him to leave his house. We thought it was right that his sentence should be referred to the Court of Appeal for review as being unduly lenient."