On sentencing, the Act formally removes the role of the Home Secretary in sentencing of young people for grave crimes (such as murder) following the decisions by the House of Lords in "R v Secretary of State for the Home Dept ex parte Venables and Thompson" (1997) and the subsequent case at the European Court of Human Rights, "T. v United Kingdom". The European Court of Human Rights had found that the right to a fair trial guaranteed by the Convention had been infringed in the cases of Robert Thompson and Jon Venables (the murderers of James Bulger) by having sentences determined by the serving Home Secretary, a political appointee. §60 of the Act assigns the power to sentence those people under 18 who are tried as adults for serious crimes with the trial judge rather than the Home Secretary.