FORMER Solicitor General Harriet Harman says she is “bitterly disappointed” to hear Kinver killer John Broadhurst’s sentence will not be extended.

The Labour MP had asked the Attorney General to examine the case after concerns were raised about the three-year eight-month sentence the millionaire property tycoon received after he admitted leaving his partner Natalie Connolly to die in a pool of blood at the bottom of the stairs at their Kenrose Mill home in December 2016.

Broadhurst, aged 40, from Wolverley, was cleared of murder at his trial in December at Birmingham Crown Court but he pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the basis of gross negligence after the court was told he and 26-year-old Ms Connolly, a mum-of-one, had engaged in ‘rough sex’ after a day of drinking and drug-taking.

He was jailed shortly before Christmas but the sentence sparked outrage on social media - with Ms Harmon, who was once Minister for Women, branding it “unduly lenient”.

The Attorney General, Geoffrey Cox, however, has now confirmed that after reviewing the court papers he has 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. I do not believe that I can properly argue that the judge fell into gross error when imposing the sentences. It would therefore not be right for me to refer the sentence to the Court of Appeal.”

Ms Harman said on Twitter: “Re: killing of Natalie Connolly bitterly disappointed @attorneygeneral not appealing John Broadhurst lenient sentence.”

While Wyre Forest MP Mark Garnier added on the social media site: “I too am disappointed. I’m seeking an urgent meeting with the AG to understand more about this. Not the outcome I was expecting.”

Ms Connolly was found to have suffered more than 40 separate injuries, including serious internal trauma, and a post mortem concluded she died from alcohol intoxication and blunt force injuries.

Broadhurst admitted leaving her at the bottom of the stairs while he went to bed – and the court was told when he woke the following morning and called 999 he told the operator his girlfriend was “dead as a doughnut”.

The father-of-three claimed he had only hurt his partner “within the boundaries of her masochistic desires” but the judge branded his behaviour as “grossly irresponsible” and he said he had “left that vulnerable young woman to die in the saddest and most avoidable of circumstances”.

Broadhurst, who Ms Connolly referred to as The Boss, was told he will serve half of his sentence in prison and the remainder on licence.