Two boys aged 14 and 15 from the Lowestoft area were arrested for the death of Joy Middleditch, an 82-year-old pensioner from Suffolk, on Monday. 

Who was Joy Middleditch?

Joy Middleditch died on Monday following an intrusion into her Suffolk home by burglars, per reports. 

She was shoved into the floor, where she was found by a family member the next day. She was taken to the hospital on Saturday afternoon, but she died a day later. 

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According to reports, Middleditch was a mother of three and also a great-grandmother. A postmortem was carried out on her by the Home Office on March 17, but they have not revealed the injured suffered by Middleditch. 

“Officers have been pursuing numerous lines of inquiry and today, Friday 31 March, arrested two males in connection with the incident,” Suffolk police said. 

‘A 15-year-old boy and a 14-year-old boy, both from the Lowestoft area, were arrested on suspicion of murder and taken to Martlesham Police Investigation Centre for questioning,” they added. 

‘A Home Office post-mortem examination was carried out on Monday, March 27. The cause of death is yet to be confirmed, pending further investigation.”

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In the UK, the age of criminal responsibility is 10 years old, which means that a child under the age of 10 cannot be held criminally responsible for their actions. 

However, if a child between the ages of 10 and 17 commits a murder, they can be charged with homicide and can be subject to trial and sentencing. The law on juvenile murder in the UK is covered under the Homicide Act 1957 and the Criminal Justice Act 2003. 

The law distinguishes between murder and manslaughter, with murder being the more serious offense. The maximum sentence for murder in the UK is life imprisonment, although this does not necessarily mean that the offender will spend their entire life in prison.