ONE of the lucky Kent survivors of the Bali bomb blast said he was pleased at the conviction in Indonesia of the man behind the atrocity in which 200 people, including 23 Britons, died.

But Lee Eldred, of Old Kent Road, Paddock Wood, said he was not celebrating that the court had sentenced 41-year-old Amrozi bin Nurhasyim to death.

Mr Eldred was on holiday in the Kuta Beach resort with three friends also from Paddock Wood at the time of the blast last October.

While there, the pals were regulars at the Sari nightclub where the bomb was planted and had left it only 15 minutes before the blast.

Mr Eldered and his mates had moved to another bar 20 metres away, when the bomb exploded. They were knocked off their feet by the blast and covered in debris, but escaped unharmed.

Mr Eldred said: “I think the death penalty is what this man wanted. He wants to be a martyr for his cause.

“I expect the jails out there are probably not very attractive. It would probably be better to lock him up and throw away the key, then he could regret what he did for the rest of is life.”

Bin Nurhasyim had been dubbed “the smiling bomber” by the media, after he gave a thumbs-up sign at his conviction and sentencing on Thursday.

However, it emerged at the weekend that the killer who had claimed he wanted a ”martyr’s death” has now appealed against his sentence.

Mr Eldred, a 30-year-old electrician, said the experience of his close shave with death and the carnage he witnessed afterwards had been a difficult memory to shake off.

He said: “I don’t say that I think about it every day, but every now and then, I see something that reminds me and a shiver runs down my back.”