One of the two robbers convicted of murdering Linklaters lawyer Tom ap Rhys Pryce had his minimum custodial term increased by the Court of Appeal today.

The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips, sitting with two other judges, ruled that the 17-year term imposed in the case of Delano Brown, now 19, was “unduly lenient” and raised it to 20 years.

But they ruled that the 21-year minimum period to be served by his co-defendant, Donnel Carty, also 19, before he can apply for release on parole was “perfectly appropriate” and not unduly lenient.

The pair were found guilty at the Old Bailey last November of stabbing the 31-year-old solicitor during an attack just yards from the London home he shared with his fiancée.

Carty was originally given detention for life with a minimum term of 21 years and Brown, who was only 17 at the time of the murder, was ordered to be detained for a minimum of 17 years.

The move to have those minimum terms increased by the Court of Appeal was made by the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, QC, who considered that they did not sufficiently reflect the “very serious nature” of the case.

The three judges rejected submissions on behalf of Carty and Brown, who were both present in the dock for the ruling, that far from being unduly lenient, their sentences were too long.

Lord Phillips described it as a “very serious murder”.

Mr ap Rhys Pryce, who was robbed of his mobile phone, travelcard and £20, was left dying in a gutter as he made his way home from Kensal Green Tube station in north west London in January 2006.

The Cambridge graduate was stabbed in the chest, face, thigh and arm when he refused to hand over his belongings.

His attackers had been part of a gang who robbed 10 people on Underground trains the previous month - two of the victims were stabbed in the thigh with a knife.

Lord Phillips said the details given in a victim impact statement by Mr ap Rhys Pryce’s fiancée, Adele Eastman, were “heart-rending”.

During the hearing it was argued by counsel on behalf of the Attorney General that the serious nature of the offence, and the high culpability of the two offenders, had merited minimum terms “significantly longer” than the 17 and 21 years.

Giving the court’s decision, Lord Phillips said: “Particularly significant in our judgment is the fact that the knife was taken with the intention that it should be used.”

There was premeditation in relation to the use of the knife and a “determined intention” that it should be used to inflict injuries that would become progressively more serious and potentially life-threatening in the event of resistance.

A “very serious aggravating factor” was the “horrific history” of the gang robberies on the Underground, involving the use of a knife.

Lord Phillips said the court rejected defence submissions that “the sentences in this case were influenced by the fact that the victim was a professional man engaged to be married to a professional woman”.

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