Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb jailed triple murderer and wannabe school shooter, 19-year-old Nicholas Prosper, for a minimum of 49 years after he shot his sister Giselle, 13, and mother Juliana, 48, and stabbed his brother, Kyle, 16, more than 100 times. The judge of the King’s Bench Division of the High Court of Justice of England and Wales ordered the teenager to attend Luton Crown Court in person as he tried to avoid attending. Addressing him, she said: “You do not want to be here but it is not your choice.
“I have ordered that you have to be brought, you have to face the consequences of your actions, to hear the court’s sentence passed in public. It’s important that those who loved your victims see your sentence.”
Born in Yorkshire in 1966 to Sikh Punjabi parents, who emigrated from India to the UK in the 1960s. Mrs Cheema-Grubb has overseen a number of infamous cases, including the sentencing of prison escapee Daniel Khalife to 14 years. He spent 75 hours on the run from police after hiding under a van. The first Asian woman appointed to the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court told the defendant he had “the makings of an exemplary soldier” when he joined up, but later showed himself “to be a dangerous fool” as he contacted men linked with Iranian intelligence.
The judge added: “You are an attention seeker and you enjoyed the notoriety you attracted following your escape from prison.”
Another high profile hearing last week, during which Mrs Cheema-Grubb sentenced 18-year-old Hassan Sentamu, who murdered 15-year-old Elianne in Croydon in September 2023 while she was on her way to school, to a minimum of 23 years in prison.
Last year, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb imposed a minimum term of 44 years 152 days on asylum seeker Ahmed Alid for the murder of 70-year-old Terrence Carney and attempted murder of housemate Javed Nouri, 31, a Christian convert, as he slept in Hartlepool in October 2023.
The attack was motivated by the Israel-Hamas war, with Alid telling police he killed the pensioner because Israel was “killing children”.
In February 2023, former Met Police officer David Carrick was handed 36 life sentences by Mrs Cheema-Grubb after he pled guilty to 85 offences, including multiple rapes.
A few months earlier in December 2022, the judge handed Anne Sacoolas an eight-month prison sentence suspended for a year and disqualified her from driving for 12 months after the American hit and killed British teenager Harry Dunn.
That same month, necrophiliac double murderer David Fuller was given a whole-life prison term by Mrs Cheema-Grubb for killing Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce in Tunbridge Wells, in 1987. He also sexually abused dead women in hospital morgues.
Another huge case saw the murderer of Zara Aleena, Jordan McSweeney, initially receiving a sentence of 38 years, before it was later reduced to 33 years.
