THE judge who jailed Michael Hamer for a minimum of 12 years said no sentence would ever make good the loss suffered by Joe's parents Tom and Gwen Geeling.

Justice Richard McCombe said Joe was intensely loved by his close and devoted family and spoke of the youngster's humorous and comical outlook on life, his many friends and popularity at school.

In complete contrast, the judge said Hamer's circumstances in life were not straightforward.

He said: "Your father separated from your mother before you were born and, it appears, that you were isolated in many ways in your life.

"You harboured significant feelings of distress from the absence of a relationship with your father and lack of contact with your half-brothers and sisters, one of whom had died at an early age.

"You had been the subject of a significant degree of bullying conduct from others at the school.

"This conduct, which continued up to the time of your offence, included physical attacks, the taking of money from you and at least one threatening letter.

"There is absolutely no suggestion that Joe Geeling was responsible for any of this bullying, far from it.

Justice McCombe continued: "You took advantage of the school mentor system, whereby older boys are assigned to look after younger boys such as Joe.

"You gave him a letter, written by yourself, pretending it to be from a senior teacher. In it you wrote that you had been assigned to be Joe's mentor and set up a meeting with him after school. You told the doctors at first that, because of bullying, you wanted someone else, that is Joe, to feel scared when he found out the letter was false. The letter was delivered to Joe. It was produced to a teacher and Joe was told to go to see another senior teacher about it. For some reason Joe did not got to that senior teacher. He told another member of the school staff that the problem had been sorted out."

The judge then went on to comment on a draft letter which was written by Hamer possible three weeks prior to Joe's murder and clearly indicated the teenager's sexual tendencies.

He said: "You may not have felt able to admit this to the doctors who have seen you but I am told that you accept that now . . . within the last few days that you have admitted . . . that you made a sexual advance to Joe who responded by referring to you as gay' and threatening to tell others of what you had done.

"You have now admitted that it was the fear of others knowing what you had attempted to do, in a sexual way, that led you to attack Joe. The rejection of the advance was the immediate triggering event of what you did to Joe." About the attack, the judge said: "It is impossible to find that, in those frenzied few minutes, you did not intend to kill.

"You took away Joe's life and damaged the lives of all who loved him.

"The penalty for an offence of murder is set by law. In the case of someone your age, the sentence is that you will be detained during Her Majesty's Pleasure. That means that you will be kept in custody as a punishment and after that will on be released when it is considered that it is safe to do so."

Mr Justice McCombe gave credit to Hamer for pleading guilty to murder, saving the Geeling family from sitting through a trial, and also cited as mitigating circumstances, his age, immaturity, his suffering of a mental illness at the time of killing Joe and that the killing was not planned in advance.

The judge added: "I must also, however, remember and take into account the aggravating features present in this case. They are particularly worrying, even in the case of one as young as you."

Moments before Hamer was led away, the judge said that only after he served 12 years, less the time already spent in custody since killing Joe, would he be considered for parole, but warned: "It does not mean that you will necessarily be released then."