AN appeal by a multi-millionaire to have his jail sentence reduced after killing his girlfriend at their Kinver home has been rejected.

John Broadhurst left his injured and bleeding partner Natalie Connolly, aged 26, to die after a drink and drug fuelled sex session at their Kenrose Mill home in December 2016.

The 41-year-old property developer was jailed for three years and eight months shortly before Christmas last year after admitting to manslaughter on the basis of gross negligence, but the sentence sparked outrage on social media.

Broadhurst, from Wolverley, set out to appeal his sentence and was due to appear at the Court of Appeal on Thursday November 14 but his application was refused.

In light of the rejected appeal, Wyre Forest Parliamentary Conservative candidate Mark Garnier, who has voiced support for Ms Connelly’s family, said: “This is absolutely how it should be.

“It was a hideous case and it seems that justice has prevailed. I am delighted that the case has failed.”

Mr Garnier previously described the appeal as “adding insult to injury” to Ms Connelly’s family and “absolutely vile.”

He has teamed up with former Solicitor General Harriet Harman, who branded the sentence "unduly lenient," to try and make amendments to the Domestic Abuse Bill.

Mr Garnier said he and Mrs Harman were going to attend the court - but the family decided not to. They both queried the "lenient" sentence with the Attorney General Geoffrey Cox.

In January, the Attorney General, confirmed that after reviewing the court papers he concluded the judge, Justice Julian Knowles, “approached the sentencing in the correct way” and in a letter to Ms Harmon he said: “I have concluded that the sentence was not outside the range of sentences that were reasonably available to the judge."