A WOMAN who cradled her boyfriend as he lay fatally injured in the street has criticised the three-year sentence passed down to his killer.

Devastated by the death of her boyfriend, Dan Beames, in August, Marcia Wheeler says the sentence now given to killer Jimmy Williams has reopened the pain of her loss.

Marcia Wheeler cradled Daniel in her lap after Williams, 20, of Bicknor Road, Maidstone, delivered a single blow.

Miss Wheeler was speaking after her boyfriend’s killer was locked up for three years after admitting Mr Beames’s manslaughter.

The punch took victim Mr Beames completely by surprise and he fell hitting his head on the kerb and fracturing his skull. Mr Beames died two days later.

Judge Andrew Patience, QC, admitted the sentence did not reflect the value of 35-year-old Mr Beames’s life.

Miss Wheeler said: “It just makes a laughing stock of the system but, to be honest, I didn’t expect anything else.

“I feel totally let down by the system, but none of it is going to bring him back.”

Miss Wheeler says she still finds it hard to come to terms with the events of the night of August 3.

Dan Beames had first confronted his killer earlier that evening, when Williams had jumped on his car outside his home in Bell Shaw.

The argument had been dropped but started again later that evening.

Miss Wheeler described the sickening moment when she saw the punch thrown at her partner.

She said: “I knew something wasn’t right when he fell and hit the ground. You could hear his head hit the ground.”

Still living at the home in Bell Shaw, she says the death has left a massive hole in her life and the life of her children.

“It’s just left a massive void and I’m not coping very well. I’m worried the kids are going to get in trouble.

“He just made life worth living. He had his kids and I had my kids. We were all very happy together.”

Judge Patience said Williams unintentionally caused Mr Beames’s death and had to be sentenced on that basis.

“Mr Beames’s family may find the law very hard to understand,” he explained.

“They will, for the foreseeable future, be suffering the effects of their loss and may think that the court, and courts in general, are not placing any value upon a lost life. They must understand this is not the purpose of sentencing for this kind of manslaughter.”

The judge went on to speak of the “quite appalling and devastating” effect Mr Beames’s death had.

Their family life was ruined and the children had lost a father and role model. Mr Beames also had children with his former wife.

Judge Patience added that, although Mr Beames may have been unwise to go looking for Williams, there was absolutely no evidence that he threatened him or became violent.

FULL STORY IN THE MAIDSTONE EDITION OF THIS WEEK'S KENT MESSENGER