THE senior detective who led the hunt for Joe Geeling's murderer has hit out at the "lenient" prison sentence.

Mr Justice Richard McCombe jailed 15-year-old Michael Hamer for a minimum of 12 years at Manchester Crown Court on Monday. He said the killing was not planned in advance. He also said he was bound by law to set a minimum detention period and had taken into account Hamer's age and early guilty plea. However, outside court, Detective Superintendent Martin Bottomley said he would be asking the Crown Prosecution Service to consider whether the custodial term was "unduly lenient" and said he believed Joe's death was premeditated. He said: "This was a ferocious, calculated murder, the like of which I have never seen before and hope I never see again.

"I do believe Hamer never intended Joe to leave that house. I will be asking leading counsel to consider whether the sentence is unduly lenient. He added: "Joe was a much-loved young boy with many friends and a loving family who have been left absolutely devastated by his death. His school friends and teachers are still trying to come to terms with what has happened, and the whole community in Bury has been left in shock. Many of the police officers involved in this case have young children and have found this case incredibly upsetting. I just hope that the Geeling family feel like justice has been done today and that they have some sort of understanding now about what happened to their son. Nothing will ever bring Joe back, but now that the court case is over, I hope that they can start to rebuild their lives and somehow start to deal with what has happened."

The CPS described the case as "unusual and troubling" and confirmed they would be in talks with the senior barristers in the case to discuss the possibility of appealing against Hamer's sentence if they agreed with Det Supt Bottomley's view that the jail term was unduly lenient. Any appeal would be lodged with the Attorney General. Adrian Dugdale, lead prosecutor for the Greater Manchester Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), said: "This was an unusual and troubling case. Michael Hamer's guilty plea meant that a full trial wasn't necessary, but the CPS felt that it was important to establish his motives for killing Joe, rule out any psychiatric defence and to stress the aggravating features.

"We wanted to make it clear that Michael Hamer's original account of the murder was not supported by the evidence. He told the police that he killed Joe on the spur of the moment after catching Joe looking at some private papers. But based on the evidence it was always the prosecution's view that Michael Hamer had a more sinister motive."