Ministerial department, the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) has confirmed that the life sentence of Harrison Lawrence-Van Pooss, of Margate, who murdered Claire Knights on 23 August 2023, will be reviewed at the Court of Appeal as ‘unduly lenient.’
Lawrence-Van Pooss was sentenced in February to a minimum term of 25 years and 183 days.
The killer had targeted Claire as she walked with her dog back from the beach at Minnis Bay. He sexually assaulted her and beat her repeatedly. He then dumped her body in a nearby dyke. Claire did not know her attacker.
Claire’s body was concealed by the reeds and grasses and was not found for two days. Her son and his friends, who were searching for her, discovered her body in the dyke.
The day before the murder, Lawrence-Van Pooss, 21, had been caught upskirting a woman at The Powell pub where he worked. He was confronted but went on the run before he could be arrested. It is believed he camped out by the beach overnight, before attacking Claire the following afternoon.
Following Lawrence-Van Pooss’s arrest, he was detained for mental health treatment. Extensive expert reports from both the prosecution and defence were commissioned. He continued to claim he had no memory of what had happened, until he claimed to have his memory return in June 2024, when the case was listed for trial.
Lawrence-Van Pooss eventually pleaded guilty to murder and voyeurism in December 2024. And was sentenced in February this year at Canterbury Crown Court to a life term with a minimum tariff of 25 years to be served.
But the case has now been referred to the Court of Appeal for July 11 to determine whether the sentence was unduly lenient and should be increased.
The Unduly Lenient Sentence (ULS) scheme allows anyone to ask for certain Crown Court sentences to be reviewed by the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) if they think the sentence is too lenient.
The review is ultimately conducted by the Law Officers (Attorney General or Solicitor General) and if they consider the sentence appears unduly lenient, they can ask the Court of Appeal to review it.
A spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office said: “The Law Officer’s referred his case to the Court of Appeal as they determined the sentence as unduly lenient
“The hearing in July is where the Solicitor General, through barristers, will set out their case. It is the Court of Appeal who ultimately decides.”
They should double it. Creep getting out in his forties will be a total menace to women everywhere.