One of the gang who kicked father-of-three Garry Newlove to death is considering an appeal against his conviction and his 17 year jail sentence, his solicitor has said.
Adam Swellings, 19, from Crewe, was jailed for life with a recommendation he serve a minimum of 17 years, for a killing that sparked outrage and a national debate about Britain’s yob culture.
Patrick Heald, Swellings’ solicitor, said however that the term had gone beyond parliament’s recommended tariff of 15 years for similar crimes.
“It is safe to say he will consider appealing [against] both the conviction and sentence,” said Mr Heald.
“These are very early days and I am not in a position to say more than that.”
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Mr Heald said considering an appeal was not unusual in such cases, and he would be meeting his client to discuss the appeal after receiving written advice from his barrister, Geoffrey Whelan.
Swellings was described at his trial as the ringleader of the three youths jailed for murdering Mr Newlove, 47, who had confronted them outside his Warrington home.
Asked whether Jordan Cunliffe, 16, and Stephen Sorton, 17 - sentenced to 12 and 15 years respectively - would also appeal, Mr Heald said: “I don’t act for them but their representatives will undoubtedly consider their positions.”
Helen Newlove, the widow of the murdered man, said that she was not surprised that Swellings was considering an appeal.
“He knows how to play the system, he has no respect and will just try whatever and I hope to God they don’t give him leave to appeal, because this is just disgraceful,” said Mrs Newlove, when she was told about it on GMTV this morning.
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“How many times are they going to give this man, this lad... he was out on bail, the charges he had were assault, harassment, these weren’t little shoplifting charges.”
Mrs Newlove revealed how the family were still coming to terms with his death six months on.
The 45-year-old widow said that she has a candlelit shrine to her husband. She told GMTV: “I call it my den, where I have Garry’s ashes and I light candles and I talk to him that way.
“I carry his T-shirt and wallet, which he left at the side of the bed. I take them everywhere I go.”
Mrs Newlove used her television appearance to say that retailers caught selling alcohol to children should lose their licences.
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She appeared alongside her two eldest daughters, Zoe, 18, and Danielle, 15, after her youngest, Amy, 13, was too upset to talk. Zoe and Amy witnessed the fatal attack.
Zoe said: “People need to understand exactly what we are going through, because I know I am 18 but no-one should witness what I’ve seen, or what my little sister Amy, who is 13, saw.
“We shouldn’t have seen that and people need to understand exactly what we’re going through.”
Danielle, who is in her final year at school, added that the family’s loss had changed her little sister.
She said: “It is just not the same, Amy is completely different. She doesn’t know who she is at the moment.
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“She was always with her dad and messing about, joking about, being sarcastic.”
Zoe said Mr Newlove was the sisters’ best friend, and had loved making people laugh with his great sense of humour.