A father whose innocent son was murdered in a callous attack spoke today of his "relief" that one of his son's killers had lost his appeal against conviction.

London's Court of Appeal heard yesterday how slightly-built Tarquin Turner, 31, was walking to Undercliffe cricket club, in Bradford, on October 23, 2003, when he was set upon and attacked with pieces of wood before being robbed.

Carl Raymond Wood, who was 17 at the time, was given a minimum term of 13 years' imprisonment for murder and William Charlton, who was 20, was given a minimum term of 15 years for murder at Bradford Crown Court in June 2004.

Wood lied in his first police interviews and claimed he knew nothing about the incident apart from what he had seen in the media.

He appealed his conviction on grounds that the trial judge was wrong not to allow his legal team to cross-examine prosecution witnesses about alleged threats made to them by members of Charlton's family. Wood claimed the threats explained his initial lies to police.

Lord Justice Thomas concluded the judge was wrong to exclude the evidence, but ruled that the conviction was not rendered "unsafe" as a result of the judge's mistake.

He said Wood remained present throughout the whole incident and must have known Mr Turner was "very seriously injured".

Today, Trevor Turner, Tarquin's dad, of Eccleshill, said: "Thank goodness for this decision. We are so pleased. We have been on edge at the possibility of a retrial.

"The fact that, after all this time, they have never shown any remorse, is amazing. I hope that sooner or later they show some remorse.

"We are still seeing psychologists, we are still can't sleep and we can find ourselves in tears for no apparent reason.

"Let's hope there are no more appeals because we still have not been able to get his possessions back because the police have retained them in case there was an appeal.

"We will rest a little easier knowing the circumstances are less likely to change and that the whole incident may not have to be regurgitated again."

In April last year, Charlton was refused permission to appeal against a life sentence imposed for the crime.

Charlton's grounds for appeal related to his young age and to claims that as the killing took place during a robbery it was wrong to treat the fact that the crime was committed for gain as an aggravating factor.