A CALL for lighter prison sentences for murderers has been criticised by Oxford families who have suffered at the hands of killers.

Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips said mandatory life sentences for murderers meant prisons risked becoming "full of geriatric lifers".

But Marjorie Binningsley, daughter of Phillip Huggins, 49, who is serving life for murdering Cecilia Nightingale, 53, said her father should never be released.

Huggins fled a bail hostel after being released on parole from an 11-year term for robbery and kidnap when he killed Miss Nightingale at a flat in Northfield Close, Littlemore, in 2004.

Mrs Huggins said: "It's ridiculous. It's not like you will ever be rehabilitated for murdering someone.

"I'm totally against shortening sentences for murder. Life should mean life, 30 years is not long enough.

She added: "I hope they never let my father out. I hope he never sees the light of day again. He has killed someone."

The father of Arash Ghorbani Zarin, 19, who was murdered in an honour killing in Oxford, agreed life should mean life.

Mamnoor Rahman, 16, Mohammed Mujibar Rahman, 19 and their father, Chomir Ali, were all convicted of murdering Mr Ghorbani Zarin, 19, in Rose Hill, Oxford, in 2005.

Raheem Ghorbani Zarin said: "No one is thinking about the victims, everyone is thinking about the criminals.

"At least 50 times a day I remember my boy and all of my family are suffering because of what those people did.

"When they talk about reducing sentences they don't think about us. Our suffering is 10 times worst than those people in prison.

"Before they set laws like this they should sit down with 50 families of victims and ask them how they feel."

Lord Phillips suggested the number of lifers was compounding the prison overcrowding crisis.

Lord Phillips, speaking at Birmingham University, suggested murder law reforms would not succeed unless changes were made in the sentencing regime.

"I'm not in favour of mandatory sentences full stop," he said.

The Government is committed to keeping mandatory sentences.

Lord Phillips said in the High Sheriff's Law Lecture in Oxford in October last year he was inclined to think a five-year prison sentence was a "very weighty punishment indeed".

He added; "That is not to say that I do not recognise that there are certain crimes which require a sentence of that length or longer to protect the public."