A TEENAGE killer who was part of the gang who beat Fearnhead dad-of-three Garry Newlove to death is set to have a conviction for murder reviewed.

Jordan Cunliffe was jailed for murder as a 16-year-old, after the 47-year-old salesman was savagely attacked outside his home on Station Road North in August 2007.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission, an independent body who can examine criminal convictions, has confirmed it received an application from Cunliffe for the case to be considered.

Following an initial examination, the CCRC said 'several issues' were highlighted surrounding the conviction.

An investigation will now take place, with an expected start in February.

The CCRC does not have the power to overturn the conviction, but it can refer the case back to the Court of Appeal.

However, of all applications the committee receives, only 3.7 per cent are sent back to the appeal stage.

Investigations, on average, take 38 weeks, but can take years.

The review comes after calls for a shake-up of joint enterprise legislation by a group of MPs.

Cunliffe, formerly of Rowland Close, Cinnamon Brow, was jailed for life alongside Adam Swellings, aged 19, from Crewe, and Stephen Sorton, aged 17, formerly of Honister Avenue, Orford.

Janet, Cunliffe's mum, has campaigned for his sentenced under joint enterprise laws to be overturned.

She claims an eye condition her son suffers means he could not have witnessed the notorious murder.

However, a Government source suggested the review of Cunliffe's case is not 'overly relevant' to the Justice Committee's report.

The committee said law reform advisers should consider it should not be possible to charge any secondary participants with murder in joint enterprise cases, who did not encourage or assist the perpetration of the murder.

A charge of manslaughter could be used instead, it proposed.

Committee chair Sir Alan Beith said: "There are clearly cases in which joint enterprise is necessary to ensure that guilty people are convicted.

"We are particularly concerned about joint enterprise in murder cases.

"The mandatory life sentence for murder means that an individual can be convicted and given a life sentence without the prosecution having to demonstrate that they had any intention of murder or serious bodily harm being committed, and where their involvement in a murder committed by someone else was minor and peripheral."

Judge Andrew Smith, who sentenced Mr Newlove's killers, said at the time each 'had attacked aggressively', and that Cunliffe was 'bragging and shouting' afterwards.

In 2010, Cunliffe failed in an appeal attempt, with top judges rejecting the case in less than an hour.