 Armstrong was sentenced to life imprisonment on 28 July 1995.The trial judge, Mr. Justice Ognall, did not make any recommendation as to how many years Armstrong should serve before he could be considered for parole, though in a High Court ruling of May 2006, Mr. Justice Crane set the minimum term to 16 years, "subject to a deduction of 12 months and 21 days for the period on remand", meaning Armstrong was eligible for parole in July 2010.A report in the psychiatric care given to Armstrong was published in June 1996, two years after he murdered Palmer, and the local health authority criticised the standard of care as "inadequate and full of shortcomings", but added that the murder of Palmer "could not have been predicted".