THE fiancée of a man jailed for 15 years in Cyprus has expressed her fear and anger after discovering his crucial appeal hearing will be just 20 minutes long.

Relatives of Julian Harrington had initially been told Thursday's hearing at the Cypriot High Court will last two days.

But his fiancée, Maxine Scrivener, has now been told that several appeals are being heard on the same day and she is now worried it will be like a "conveyor belt" of court appearances.

"I'm really upset because it all boils down to it was an accident and he's still looking at 15 years," she said.

Mr Harrington's solicitor hopes to get the jail term cut by eight or ten years.

But Miss Scrivener is concerned that 20 minutes will not give him enough time to put forward the argument that the original sentence was manifestly excessive.

She said: "I would really love it to come down to five or four years. The less the better.

"I don't know which way it's going to go. I think there's so many people going that day for appeal.

"I'm looking forward to it because it is the next step but I just don't know which way it's going to go. I feel so sorry for Julian."

The 39-year-old fencing contractor from Witham was sentenced to 15 years in February for manslaughter and six years for grievous bodily harm, to run concurrently, after his car collided with a moped in August 2006, killing rider Christos Papiris.

He has already been told he must serve nine-and-a-half years before being released in 2016.

But Mr Harrington has always maintained that the collision was an accident and that he only changed his plea to guilty, following legal advice, to free his two nephews, who had been passengers in his rented car and faced the same charges, and to receive a lesser sentence.

However, the prosecutors in the original trial are also appealing against the acquittal of the two young men, Luke Atkinson and Michael Binnington.

See this week's Witham and Braintree Times for full story