article_snippet.sent: Colin Pitchfork argued at the double murderer 2009 appeal against the double murderer sentence that the 30 years was 'manifestly' excessive.
article_snippet.sent: the double murderer was jailed at Leicester Crown Court in 1988 after pleading guilty to two counts of murder, two of rape, two of indecent assault and one of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
article_snippet.sent: Announcing the decision to reduce the minimum term by two years in 2009, the then Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, said his 2009 appeal against his sentence that the 30 years was 'manifestly' excessive was being allowed to a 'very restricted and limited extent relating to exceptional progress in custody'.
article_snippet.sent: the double murderer emphasised that the decision to reduce the minimum term by two years in 2009has no bearing whatever on the continuing effect of the sentence of life imprisonment on the appellant'.
article_snippet.sent: the then Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge said the court could not 'identify any sufficient reason' why the exceptional progress made 'should not be recognised and given practical effect in the assessment now to be made of the minimum term to be served by the appellant', and reduced it by two years.