Moscow - A Russian boy was sentenced to 10 years in prison yesterday for paying two hit men to murder his parents with knives and when that did not work, a hammer, as he looked on.
Sergei Sokolov (14) of Iskitim near the Siberian city of Novosibirsk let the two men into his home where they first stabbed his mother to death, then his father. The court in Novosibirsk heard that the mother died quickly from her wounds but the father had to be "finished off" with a hammer.
The two killers, whom the boy gave 1,500 roubles each (about £55), were sentenced to 20 years in a maximum security prison.