'Life means life' campaign appeal

Chantel Taylor went missing in March 2004

Parents whose children have been murdered have stepped up their campaign for a review of sentencing policy.

The group in Merseyside have called for more public backing for their "life should mean life" campaign.

Jean Taylor's daughter Chantel was murdered in 2004. Her killer was jailed for life but had his minimum sentence cut from 21 to 18 years.

Mrs Taylor, from Birkenhead, said a life sentence should mean life in prison without parole.

She fronted a series of campaigns to find her daughter when she went missing in 2004, but it was two years before her killer was caught.

'Lie awake'

Steven Wynne, of Birkenhead, Wirral, was originally arrested for setting fire to a mosque - but confessed to Chantel's killing when police found a poem alluding to the murder in his house.

He admitted killing her with a meat cleaver before using a saw to dismember her body. Her remains have never been found.

Andrew Jones was punched in the face outside a nightclub in 2003

Her mother travelled to Downing Street with a 35,000-strong signature petition on the issue earlier this month.

Mrs Taylor said: "It doesn't matter where they come from or how you bring your children up, when they close that door to go for a night out you lie awake wondering and hoping that you hear the key turn in the door and they are back again safely.

"I appeal for parents to join us. Join us before you're in our club."

Christine Jones, the mother of Andrew Jones, from Walton, Liverpool, who died after he was punched in the face outside a nightclub in 2003 said she agreed.

She said: "I want to see them go away for life, they have taken my son away from me. He was my everything and I can never replace him.

"Why should their mothers have them when I can't have him. I'm living in a nightmare all the time. I'm not dead and I'm not alive - I'm in-between worlds."