Derbyshire child murderer Michael Harrison will NOT have sentence increased

Michael Harrison has been jailed for a minimum of 21 and a half years after brutally murdering his son

Harrison, 41, was last month jailed for life with a minimum term of 21 years and 6 months after being convicted of the brutal murder of his undernourished son Mikey Harrison.

The sentence had been referred to the Attorney General’s Office for review under the unduly lenient sentencing scheme but, upon review, was not sent to the Court of Appeal for reconsideration.

At trial, jurors heard how Mikey was ferociously beaten at his home address in Heanor, on June 18 of last year, to the extent that the young boy sustained a bleed to his liver. His dad, Michael, has never revealed the reason behind the murder.

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READ THIS: Michael Harrison jailed for 21-and-a-half years for the murder of his 11-year-old son

Four hours later, and with his son in increasing pain, Harrison drove the boy to Shipley Country Park where he called 999 from his van and concocted a story that Mikey had sustained the injuries after falling from a tree.

He was jailed on Thursday, May 18, and appeared in the dock wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the words ‘FAMILY’ on the front.

After being sentenced, he pointed towards members of the media and said: "I will always love my family no matter what you lot say. Put whatever version you like.

As reported, Judge Smith told Harrison: "You hit and punched him many times and one of the punches was so hard that you lacerated his liver – the eventual cause of his death.

"Rather than face up to what you did you made a call to the ambulance service to report that Mikey had fallen from a tree. The best efforts of doctors were not enough.”

The court heard that Mikey, who weighed just three stones and 11 pounds, went into cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead at 2.39pm on June 18 last year – five hours after the attack.

His dad would subsequently claim the injuries were sustained when Mikey ‘feel from a tree’ during a game of hide and seek. This account was dismissed as pure fiction and when police visited the home address on June 21 they found the place had been ‘stripped and cleaned’.

The Attorney General’s Office has been approached for comment.