AN OUTRAGED father left reeling by news that the army hero turned monster who killed his son is to appeal today insisted: "I would have had him on the end of a rope years ago."

Former soldier Jimmy Johnson has won legal aid to contest his conviction for the murder of Blackburn lab technician Robert Harwood after claiming he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

The killer, also from Blackburn, has claimed he was suffering from mental stress brought on by his service on the streets of Northern Ireland.

But his victim's father has hit out at the judicial system which allowed Johnson out to kill his son nine years after he had been given a life sentence for murder.

Johnson battered a Teeside security guard to death in 1974 but was freed on parole in 1983.

Two years later he smashed 41-year-old Robert Harwood's skull with a lump hammer at his home on Lynwood Road.

His father, also called Robert, revealed family members are already calling on Home Secretary Michael Howard to throw out the appeal.

He added: "I think the whole thing stinks. I would have had him on the end of a rope years ago and if justice had been done as it should have been done my son would be alive today.

"If people don't want capital punishment then life should mean life when they put people away - ask any father of a murdered son what they think."

Mr Harwood, 82, served with the Fleet Air Arm during the Second World War and added: "I know a lot of people who saw a lot of horrible things, but they didn't start murdering people.

"I spent years nursing my wife, who had rheumatoid arthritis. Eighteen months after she died, I lost my son. My world fell apart."

Robert, known as Robin to his family, was a keen member of Blackburn Amateur Dramatic Society.

His father said: "The man who took his life isn't fit to lace his boots.

"Time and time again people come out and commit crimes. What's my life going to be like if he gets out. What is he going to do to me? What is he going to do to someone else?"

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