A DEVASTATED widow said she was appalled at the "lenient" sentence handed to her husband’s killer.
James Spencer, 25, was given a minimum of seven years and 148 days in prison on top of the 582 he had already spent inside after he beat Peter Green to death with a spanner in Skelmanthorpe.
After the brutal killing, at his mother’s home on Lidgett Lane, Spencer mutilated Mr Green’s body with a kitchen knife.
He pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
Bradford Crown Court heard he had Asperger syndrome, behavioural problems, a drink problem and was still grieving over the death of his father in 2003.
Judge James Goss QC said Spencer would serve
Linda Green, Mr Green’s wife of 28 years, said it was not nearly enough for Spencer’s crime.
"He isn’t human," she said.
"He mutilated Peter. Even animals know when to stop.
"I think the sentence is appallingly lenient.
"I have been left with a life sentence.
"I wanted him to get 30 years."
Mr Green, a retired mechanical engineer, was house sitting for Spencer’s mother, Margaret Wheeler, while she was on holiday in Spain in October 2008.
The court was told Mrs Wheeler, who was staying in Mr and Mrs Green’s Gran Alicant apartment, had banned her son from her house while she was away.
But Mrs Green, 57, said there was actually an arrangement for Spencer to be allowed in as long as a reasonable adult was there.
She also told how her husband, a car enthusiast, had befriended Spencer before the attack which took place on October 19.
Mrs Green said: "Peter was such a caring and friendly person – he would do anything for anyone.
"He had befriended him. Peter would show him his cars.
"They had even gone for a drink together on more than one occasion.
"I don’t know why he did what he did.
"All I know he was a very angry person.
"He had a total house fetish. He didn’t want any man in that house."
Spencer had been on a huge drinking binge the day before the killing and into the early hours of the following morning.
It is thought that shortly after 4am on October 19, he went first to Lidgett Lane where Mr Green was asleep, but could not enter the house because Mr Green could not hear him knocking.
He then went round to Mr and Mrs Green’s house on Radcliffe Street and knocked on the door.
After getting no response he went to Lidgett Lane armed with a spanner, kicked the door down and attacked Mr Green in an upstairs bedroom.
The attack continued downstairs and Mr Green died after suffering numerous cuts, skull fractures and other injuries.
Spencer than stabbed his body and cut his wrists.
Mrs Green, who works in a nursing home, said: "I keep thinking if I had opened the door that night Peter might be alive now.
"But he had told me not to let him in because he was worried about me.
"Everyone in the village knew he had a violent side and would give him a wide berth, but Peter would give everyone the benefit of the doubt."
Between 250 and 300 people attended popular Mr Green’s funeral service at Fixby Crematorium.
Mrs Green said that she was totally devastated by what Spencer did to her husband. a retired mechanical engineer.
"Peter and I had a beautiful marriage and he used to tell me we were a fabulous team," she said.
"He used to say: ‘She’s my life, I can’t live without her.
"Sometimes when the phone rings I think it’s Peter. Or I’ll look up and see the car outside and think he’s home from work."
Mrs Green also paid tribute to the friends who had supported her since her husband’s death.
"They have been wonderful," she said. "I don’t know what I’d do without them."
