A young offender involved in a savage beating death at a house party two years ago will serve his life sentence as an adult,  a Quebec youth court judge has ruled.

The offender, who cannot be identified, has little chance of being rehabilitated in a youth detention centre, Judge Ginette Maillet said Wednesday after handing him a life sentence.

The offender pleaded guilty last year to second degree murder in the death of 19-year-old Sébastien Lacasse. The suspect was 17 when he was arrested as the ringleader of a group of teens that pummeled, punched, pepper-sprayed and stabbed Lacasse at a house party in Laval, north of Montreal. 

The convicted teen will be back in court on Nov. 13, when he will be told how and where he will serve his sentence.

Maillet's ruling means the accused faces a minimum of 10 years in prison. If he'd been sentenced as a minor, the offender would have faced a minimum of four years in a detention centre.

It's the first time a young offender in Quebec has received an adult sentence since the federal Youth Criminal Justice Act was adopted in 2002.  

Lyne Lacasse, Sébastien's mother, called the ruling "a balm for the heart," adding: "It won't bring back Sébastien, but justice has taken its course, and has done a good job."

Lacasse hopes her dead son's case will reverberate among young Quebecers. "Teens need to understand that a crime is a crime, and you have to pay for it."

The ruling sends a strong message to young people in Quebec, said a victims' rights association.

"We need the government to wake up to the reality of violent crime among youth," said Pierre-Hugues Boisvenue, who heads a victims' rights group in Quebec. "It's worrisome because these kinds of incidents are on the rise, and we absolutely need to be proactive."