THE Bolton girlfriend of paratrooper Benjamin Kamanalagi, who was beaten to death in a vicious attack, is appealing to people in the town to support her campaign to give the thugs responsible a tougher sentence.

Joanne Done wants the public to sign her petition which calls for the men who killed her partner to serve more than the five and a half years they were sentenced to for manslaughter. Joanne and the rest of Benjamin's family were appalled at the judge's decision and say Richard Smith and Anthony Curtis should spend the rest of their lives behind bars.

Joanne, who gave birth to the former soldier's child Cory four weeks after he died, said: "Those thugs have only been given five and a half years for hunting Ben down, beating him relentlessly with weapons, hurling racial abuse at him and then leaving him to die on the streets.

"When I heard the sentence they were given it tore me apart. If you take a person's life, you should serve life."

The former paratrooper was beaten to death outside a friend's home in Weaste, Salford, in September 1999. He was going to rejoin the army after hearing Joanne was pregnant, so he could provide for his new family.

Joanne said: "We had an excellent future together and both of us were looking forward to the birth of our first child.

"Nobody can imagine what we have had to go through. They took the life of Ben and wrecked the life of my new family. I can never accept how he was taken from me in such a vicious way."

Joanne's MP, Dr Brian Iddon, is helping her appeal against the sentences of the two thugs and has passed on the first 1,000 name petition to Jack Straw , who will pass it on to the Attorney General.

Curtis and Smith were found not guilty of murder and guilty of manslaughter.