Teens to serve 15 years for 'gruesome' murder of friend

Two teenage girls have been sentenced to life imprisonment in Western Australia for murdering their 15-year-old friend who they then buried in a shallow grave in the south-west town of Collie.

The two girls, who are now 17, pleaded guilty to killing their friend, 15-year-old Eliza Jane Davis in June last year.

They covered her mouth with a chemical-soaked rag and strangled her with a piece of wire.

President of the Perth Children's Court, Denis Reynolds, said the offence they committed was gruesome and merciless in the extreme and showed a gross disregard for human life.

But because of their age, the pair will eligible for parole after serving a minimum of 15 years.

Outside, Eliza Davis' grandfather expressed his outrage at the sentence.

"They'll be free running around in 15 years and I've lost a grand-daughter," he said.

"I'll never get her back."

Their sentence will be backdated until June last year when they were taken into custody.

Teens who killed taxi driver jailed

Two teenage girls who killed a taxi driver in western Sydney in January last year, have been jailed for at least three-and-a-half years.

The Supreme Court has been told the girls, who were 14-years-old at the time, dragged Youbert Hormozi out of his taxi after he tried to grab one of them when they got out without paying the fare at Canley Heights.

They kicked and punched the 53-year-old before abandoning him on the road and driving-off in his taxi.

Mr Hormozi had severe coronary disease and died from a heart attack triggered by the assault.

The girls pleaded not guilty for murder but guilty for manslaughter.

The judge said the offences were serious but the sentences should reflect that they were committed by young people whose judgment was affected by drugs and alcohol.

The girls were sentenced to six years' in a juvenile detention centre, with a non-parole period of three-and-a-half years.