THE former partner of a Droitwich man kicked to death by a teenager in Scotland has welcomed the news that an appeal against the sentence given to his killer will be heard.

Sixteen-year-old James Simpson was handed a four-year sentence in June after being convicted of culpable homicide, the Scottish equivalent of manslaughter.

The trial heard Steven Jones died, aged 33, after Simpson stamped on his head during an attack in Dens Road, Dundee, last July. Simpson had spent the night drinking on waste ground in the city but witnesses were unable to say why he knocked Mr Jones to the ground.

Mr Jones, a former paratrooper, of the Ridgeway, Droitwich, was on a night out in the Scottish city after taking his 10-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter to visit their grandmother. After the trial, Diane Harper, his partner for 11 years, said she was disgusted with the sentence, which she believed would see Simpson released within two-and-a-half years.

However, last week Miss Harper received a letter from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, Scotland’s equivalent of the Crown Prosecution Service, which told her an appeal against the sentence had been granted.

The Lord Advocate has the right to appeal if it is felt the sentence is unduly lenient. Miss Harper said she was pleased with the decision and said: “Hopefully they can’t give him any less. They will keep it the same or increase it.”

She now faces a long wait to find out when the appeal will be heard.

Simpson, of Loganlee Terrace, Dundee, was cleared of murder after jurors decided he was provoked by a blow from a beer bottle by Mr Jones’s friend.