AN APPEAL to increase the sentence of a man who killed 18-year-old Cameron Hamilton has been rejected.

An application was made under the unduly lenient sentencing scheme but this was rejected by the Attorney General’s Office.

Thomas Betteridge, 18 and of Southsea, was found guilty of manslaughter after stabbing Cameron Hamilton in Bournemouth Square last summer.

The fatal stabbing followed a fight breaking out between the two groups of youths in the early hours of August 5, 2023.

Betteridge faced trial at Bournemouth Crown Court alongside co-defendant Lennie Hansen, 18 and of Waterlooville.

The court heard that Hansen had brought the knife into Bournemouth town centre that Betteridge later used to stab Cameron Hamilton.

Defence barristers said Betteridge was chased through the Square by Mr Hamilton and then stabbed him three times in self-defence.

Betteridge was sentenced to 12 years in a young offenders’ institute which includes a custodial period of nine years with an extension period of three years.

Following the sentence, Cameron Hamilton’s mother, Sarah Robinson, warned that the outcome would not act as a deterrent to people carrying knives.

She previously told the Echo outside Bournemouth Crown Court that it had become “abundantly clear that that there are some serious flaws in our criminal justice system” surrounding knife crime.

“Had there not been a knife present that evening, and somebody who had not the fear or the care of the consequences of using it, Cam would still be with us today.”

A spokesperson for the solicitor general: “The Solicitor General was shocked and saddened by this case and wishes to express his sympathies to Cameron Hamilton’s family.

“After careful consideration, the solicitor general has concluded that he could not properly refer this sentence to the Court of Appeal.

“A referral under the unduly lenient sentence scheme to the Court of Appeal can only be made if a sentence is not just lenient but unduly so, such that the sentencing judge made a gross error or imposed a sentence outside the range of sentences reasonably available in the circumstances of the offence.

“The threshold is a high one, and the test was not met for this sentence.”