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Ben's killers will not serve more time

26/ 7/2001

AN ATTEMPT to increase the sentences of two Salford men who killed Manchester nightclub bouncer and fitness instructor Ben Kamanalagi has failed at the Court of Appeal.

Anthony Curtis, aged 21, of Bond Square and Richard Smith, aged 19, of Bayton Avenue, were each sentenced to five and a half years for manslaughter, at Manchester Crown Court on February 13. Both men will be eligible for parole after serving half of their jail sentence.

Patrick McDonagh, aged 20, of Chislehurst Street, Cheetham, was cleared of all charges.

The three men were originally charged with murder but were cleared after the jury spent 50 minutes in deliberation.

The Attorney General submitted the sentences were 'unduly lenient' and their crime merited more punishment.

Announcing the decision Lord Justice Kennedy, sitting with Mr Justice Potts and Mrs Justice Hallett, said they believed the sentences, although lenient, should not be increased.

Manchester Crown Court was told Mr Kamanalagi, aged 28, had ejected four men from the Epic nightclub in Manchester. Four days later he was attacked outside the home of a friend in Meadowgate Road, Weaste, and beaten with baseball bats and fence posts.

The men went into hiding and were eventually found in Lancashire but the fourth man has not been traced.

Ben's heartbroken fiancee Joanne hit out at the speed of the jury's verdict: "I am devastated. How can a jury take so little time after two weeks of evidence?" she said at the time.

Joanne, who gave birth to their daughter Cory four weeks after Ben was killed, added: "I am very angry and I am devastated. Ben's parents are absolutely distraught, they can't even talk about it."