The legal establishment in Britain is disturbingly out of step with public opinion if a body of leading barristers can declare that a two-year sentence for beating and kicking someone to death is "not unduly lenient".

Two years in prison was what Harry Mortimer received for the manslaughter of his Windhill neighbour and lifelong acquaintance Dennis Wainman. It was a savage and sustained assault in a local pub, apparently provoked by a joke made by Mr Wainman, who was hit six or seven times and then kicked when he fell to the floor.

That terrible attack cost Mr Wainman his life. It left his wife a widow. It deprived the couple's three children of their father. It is small wonder that there has been public outrage expressed at the fact that all this inexplicable loss of control has cost Harry Mortimer just 12 months of his life - after remission.

The hope of the family and its supporters, understandably, was that the sentence would be increased following an appeal by the Crown Prosecution Service. However long the sentence was, it could never compensate the Wainman family for their loss. But at least a substantial increase on those two years would make it seem more as if justice had been done.

Yet now the CPS has decided not to appeal after consulting the Treasury Council and being told that the sentence was not unduly lenient. If that is the case, it should not be surprising if the public in general are growing disenchanted with the due processes of law and order which increasingly seem not to reflect their feelings.

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