Dennis Alma Robinson, one of the men found guilty of murdering the Cooper twins, has lost an appeal against his conviction at the Privy Council in London.However, the court said Chief Justice Richard Ground should reconsider the minimum term of imprisonment Robinson must serve before he is eligible for parole.Robinson’s co-accused, Kenneth Burgess, bludgeoned 20-year-old Jahmal and Jahmil Cooper with a metal baseball bat at his Devonshire apartment in March 2005. The attack was said to be in revenge for them allegedly robbing his father.Robinson guarded the door to prevent escape and then helped Burgess to dispose of the bodies down Abbot’s Cliff in Hamilton Parish.Both were found guilty by a jury of murder and were jailed for life. In law as it stood at the time, that meant each man would have to serve at least 15 years before he could be eligible for parole.In 2008, the Bermuda Court of Appeal dismissed Robinson’s appeal against his conviction. However it allowed, in part, his appeal against sentence, reducing the number of years he must serve before being eligible for parole from 15 years to 12 years.The period was reduced due to the lesser role Robinson played in the crime, compared to Burgess.The ruling was a landmark one, as it gave judges the power to decide how long convicted murderers should spend in jail. The Court of Appeal said the statutory minimum period was “unconstitutional and void” and judges should be able to set a minimum period above or below 15 years depending on the circumstances of individual cases.Since the Court of Appeal refused to quash Robinson’s conviction, his lawyers John Perry QC and Craig Attridge took a further appeal to the Privy Council, which is Bermuda’s highest court of appeal.When the matter was heard in London on December 15 2010, Mr Perry again argued that Robinson should have his conviction for murder quashed. He alleged that the prosecution’s case that Robinson aided Burgess in the murders was flawed on several grounds.However, the panel of five Privy Council judges rejected the invitation to overturn the murder conviction in a judgment delivered on Wednesday.“The conclusions reached by the jury were properly open to it on full and accurate directions given by the judge,” they said.The Privy Council was asked to reconsider Robinson’s sentence once again. However, the judges said the issue should be reconsidered in Bermuda by Mr Justice Ground, who was the trial judge when the case was first heard.Responding to the Privy Council judgment, Director of Public Prosecutions Rory Field said yesterday: “The murder of the Cooper twins was a very brutal and shocking case.“Clearly the result of this appeal to the Privy Council in London, namely that the appeal against the conviction of Dennis Robinson was dismissed, was due to a team effort by the Department of Public Prosecutions, the police and those members of the general public who assisted with the investigation and prosecution.“With regards to the sentence, this will be remitted back to the trial judge to determine the minimum term to be served.”