THE brother of a man killed as part of a sick "game" is to make a radio appeal for the killer's sentence to be lengthened.

Father-of-two Paul Simpson died last year after being punched in the face which caused him to fall backwards and hit his head on the kerb, leaving him with irreversible brain damage.

His killer, Alfred Welch, a member of Darlington's settled travelling community, was sentenced to just three years in jail after admitting manslaughter at Teesside Crown Court, last July.

Now Mr Simpson's brother, Geoff, is to make an appeal to the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, for Welch's sentence to be lengthened, during a BBC Radio 4 programme to be broadcast next week.

The appeal is part of the radio station's programme Law in Action, which tackles high-profile legal issues.

Mr Simpson's family were outraged after the Appeal Court imposed only a 12-month increase on Welch's sentence, rather than the anticipated two years.

Welch, then 21, was cruising the streets of Darlington, calling on innocent members of the public for assistance. He then punched them to see if he could knock them down.

But the "game" left Mr Simpson's two children without their father, after he suffered fatal injuries from the punch.

His brother has been campaigning for a tougher sentence. He told the Northern Echo after the case last year: "The law is out of touch and needs to be changed."

Sam McAllistair, of Law in Action, was alerted to the case after reading about it in The Northern Echo.

She got in touch with Mr Simpson to allow him to argue the case with the Attorney General on air.

She said: "There have been quite a few high-profile cases recently where very lenient sentences have been imposed.

"I read about Paul Simpson in The Northern Echo and thought I would get in touch with his brother to see if he was prepared to talk about it."

The programme will be aired on Friday, at 4pm and again on Sunday, July 7, at 8.30pm, on Radio 4.