THE Crown Prosecution Service is to appeal for longer jail sentences for three people convicted over the violent death of a man with learning difficulties.

Victim Lee Irving, 24, thought he was with friends when he came under the influence of James Wheatley in Kenton, Newcastle.

But Wheatley battered Mr Irving to death over a period of days, punching, kicking and stamping him and causing injuries likened to someone in a car crash.

Wheatley was jailed for life with a minimum term of 23 years after he was convicted of murder at Newcastle Crown Court last month.

Three co-accused from the same house were also convicted of lesser offences, and the CPS successfully asked the Attorney General for the right to appeal against their sentences.

Wheatley’s mother, Julie Mills, 52, his then girlfriend, Nicole Lawrence, 22, and his accomplice, Barry Imray, 35, who also has learning difficulties, did nothing to protect Mr Irving.

Mills gave him prescription drugs including morphine to sedate him and Lawrence suggested taking Mr Irving to Durham and dumping him there once his injuries had healed,

But he died in June last year and his body was left on a footpath beside the A1.

Mills was jailed for eight years for causing or allowing the death of a vulnerable adult and perverting the cause of justice.Lawrence was convicted of the same offences and was jailed for four years.

Imray had previously admitted perverting the course of justice and was convicted of causing or allowing Mr Irving’s death and was jailed for three years.

A CPS spokesman said: “In December of last year, the CPS wrote to the Attorney General to seek leave to appeal the sentences of Barry Imray, Julie Mills and Nicole Lawrence, on the grounds that the original sentences did not adequately reflect the severity of their offending.” The appeal will now be heard at the Court of Appeal on Tuesday March 7.