LAWYERS for killers Clare and Simon Nicholls are planning to appeal against their combined 57 years behind bars.

Legal teams for the murderers plan to challenge the sentences given to the brother and sister.

Clare Nicholls, 28, was jailed for a minimum of 32 years for torturing her boyfriend, Andrew Gardner, for weeks before his eventual death in March last year.

Her brother, Simon, 24, was told he will serve at least 25 years for his part in the killing of the 35-year-old at the home they all shared in Chilton, County Durham.

The Recorder of Middlesbrough, Judge Peter Fox, ruled the murder merited a 30- year starting point.

Lawyers for the pair argued their minimum terms should have started at the 15-year bracket and been increased because of aggravating factors.

They said elevating the killing into the higher level was wrong because it was not sadistic, despite Mr Gardener’s prolonged suffering.

Jamie Hill, for Simon Nicholls, said nothing his client did was premeditated, and he simply joined in on occasions to help his elder sister.

Bertie Woodcock, acting for Clare Nicholls, said his client had not used weapons to assault Mr Gardner, who had learning difficulties, and her attacks were usually a spontaneous reaction.

Judge Fox told the court there were “reflections of sadism” in the killing and that Mr Gardener was “cruelly tortured”.

“In my judgement this prolonged killing was one of a particularly high degree of seriousness in the spectrum of murder."

He said Simon Nicholls and his sister’s lover, Steven Martin, 44, enjoyed inflicting pain upon Mr Gardner – with or without her consent or orders.

A source close to the case said last night: “Appeals against the minimum terms for the brother and sister are being seriously considered.

“There appears to be no grounds to appeal against the convictions, but it is thought that the minimum terms in this case have been set far too high.”

The brother and sister, as well as Martin, were found guilty of murder on Friday after a three-week trial at Teesside Crown Court.

Martin will be sentenced next month after undergoing psychiatric tests.

Mr Gardner was found dead by paramedics when they were called to the home they all shared in Arthur Street, Chilton, on March 13 last year.

A post-mortem examination showed he had more than 120 injuries, including 21 rib fractures, bleeding on the brain and blood poisoning.

He had been starved slashed, whipped, scalded, burnt by being held against a radiator and branded with a cigarette lighter in the weeks before his death.

The court heard how he suffered the broken ribs from being kneed and stamped on, and died in excruciating pain, unable to leave the house.

Detective Chief Inspector Mick Nail, the man who led the investigation, said: “Basically, he had been tortured.

Everyone who saw him was shocked at the extent of the injuries he had suffered.”