A MOTHER handed in a 3,000-signature petition to 10 Downing Street yesterday, pleading that the rapist who murdered her five-year-old daughter should not be released early from prison.

Carol Lowther is urging Prime Minister Tony Blair to ensure that John Johnston will not be set free from prison in Northern Ireland, where his sentence is being reviewed.

Mrs Lowther, a gipsy, of Stockton, said she feared for her other daughter, now seven, if Johnston was released.

Her daughter, Margaret, was murdered by Johnson, her cousin, in February 1998. Her naked body was found later near the travellers' site where she lived.

Johnson was sentenced to be detained indefinitely at Her Majesty's Pleasure.

Mrs Lowther believes Johnson would still remain a danger if he was released.

''If he got out, I am still going to be looking behind my shoulder. My children are not going to feel safe,'' she said.

Mrs Lowther's MP Dari Taylor has taken up the case.

As well as the plea to the Prime Minister, Mrs Lowther has sent letters to the Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid and the Northern Ireland Parole Board, urging that Johnson be kept in prison longer.

''He is a devious man who lied about Margaret's murder. There remains the very real prospect that he will strike again and take another innocent life," she said.