Six black Briton gang members, ranging in age from 17 to 20, face life sentences in prison (i.e. they’ll be out in five years) for the wanton murder of a black 14-year old teenager, one Shaquille Smith, at a London park. The victim was described as an “Army Cadet.”
I thought that you couldn’t join the British Armed Forces until you were at least 16 years old. The reason that you can at 16, unlike the U.S., where the minimum is 17, (even though in either country, you can’t be on the front lines of combat until you’re 18), is that, at least for several more years, if you are found not to have post-secondary education ambitions or brain chops, you’re done with school at 16.
Perhaps “Army Cadets” does not literally mean the sworn Army. Internet search engines give me no answers.
No link because the Sky News article mentions the name of the Judge that will hand out the sentences next month.
