Defiant Joanne Foster has hit out at the Government after Baroness Scotland told her the prison sentence imposed on her boyfriend’s killer was ‘appropriate’.

Joanne Foster, 35, said she was ‘disgusted’ at the decision to reject her appeal against the five-year manslaughter sentence given to John Anthony Cunningham in January.

Cunningham, who has six previous convictions for violence, had been drinking when he killed her boyfriend Neil McDonald, 34, with a single punch to the head in an unprovoked assault in Macclesfield town centre last August.

He could be free by February 2012 because of time served.

Joanne, of Percyvale Street, Macclesfield, said: "I am absolutely devastated that my appeal was rejected, I am so angry.

"I appealed to Baroness Scotland because I was told the sentence was too lenient, but the response said Cunningham is serving an appropriate sentence for his crime.

"So they are saying justice has been done, that two and a half years for killing is appropriate, and that is the value of a human life.

"I have replied saying how disgusted I am and told her to get out in the real world and see how bad our streets are becoming."

She launched her own ‘Price of a Punch’ campaign against street violence last month and is determined to take it to the top.

David Cameron has written a letter backing her and she plans to take an e-petition to Downing Street to fight for tougher manslaughter sentences.

The mum-of-one, an NHS clerical worker, will be in Macclesfield’s Market Place from 10am next Saturday, March 20, to gather more signatures and is printing campaign posters for Pubwatch landlords around the country to display.

She has received a reply from Gordon Brown which says he receives ‘thousands of letters like this a week’ and has passed it to Justice Minister Jack Straw.

Joanne said: "I think Gordon Brown needs to address why he gets thousands of letters each week."

Pubwatch Cheshire is behind the campaign, which Joanne wants to take into schools.

She visited Tytherington High School this week to meet teachers and ask students to produce a poster against alcohol-fuelled violence.

Joanne’s website is at www.priceofapunch.co.uk, which includes details of her e-petition to the Prime Minister.