My son’s brutal killers should never get out

The family of a man murdered for a £5 bet have launched a petition for tougher jail sentences for killers.

Danielle Flynn whose twin brother Brent Martin was beaten to death for “sport” wants to see evil killers serve “life means life” sentences.

Mr Martin, who had learning difficulties, was murdered by a gang he thought were friends before they chased him one-and-a-half miles across the Town End Farm estate in Sunderland.

He was punched, kicked and stamped on by his killers described as a “pack of animals”

They then partially stripped him and left him for dead after the ferocious attack in August 2007.

Speaking following the sixth anniversary of her son’s death, Mr Martin’s mum, Brenda, said: “They should never get out not as long as I live and they should never get another appeal.”

Mr Martin, who had a long history of mental health problems, was murdered just three months after spending nine years in a psychiatric hospital.

The 23-year-old had planned to get on with life and wanted to become a landscape gardener.

But his young life was cut short after he befriended William Hughes, then 22, Marcus Miller, 16, and 17-year-old Stephen Bonallie.

Mr Martin gave the trio money but, fuelled by drink, the trained boxers turned on him.

They chased and attacked him leaving his lifeless body between two parked cars.

Hughes and Miller later pleaded guilty to his murder.

Bonallie denied the charge but was convicted at Newcastle crown court.

Ringleader Hughes, a father-of-two from Sunderland, was jailed for life with a minimum of 22 years.

Bonallie, of Birtley Avenue, Sunderland, was handed a minimum term of 18 years.

Miller, from Baxter Road, was told he would spend at least 15 years behind bars.

But the family suffered more heartbreak when all three successfully appealed their minimum terms.

Mrs Flynn, a married 29-year-old whose son is named after his late uncle is now rallying support for longer jail sentences for killers.

Her online petition reads: “My twin brother Brent Martin was murdered in 2007 aged 23 years by three animals.

“They killed him for sport in an unprovoked attack for a £5 bet.

“They kicked him and punched him then left him in a pool of blood half naked, stripped of his dignity.”

Speaking of his murderers, she wrote: “The prisons are now like a holiday camp. They have all their meals, free membership to the gym, TV, games, phone and can do further education. To me this is totally sending out the wrong message.

“If murder carried a higher sentence I believe such horrendous crimes would be cut.”

In June 2008 at the Court of Appeal in London, Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips, Mr Justice Goldring and Mr Justice Plender, imposed a new minimum of 19 years on Hughes.

Bonallie’s term was cut to 15 years while Miller’s was reduced to 13 years.

Mr Justice Goldring said the starting point for the sentences should have been 15 years rather than 30.

Brenda Martin, 68, a grandmother of 26, laid flowers at her son’s graveside to mark the six-year anniversary last week.

She said: “It is just heartbreaking that they are alive and he is not.

“It’s been six years now and my heart still has a big knot in it.”