A MOTHER has spoken of her anxiety ahead of an appeal hearing against her daughter's conviction for murder.

Patsy Barker, from Kemsley, has waited three-and-a-half agonising years for the Court of Appeal to hear the case of her daughter, Kirsty Scamp, who was just 20 when she was sentenced to at least 12 years in prison for murdering her violent boyfriend.

However, today judges will be asked to overturn both the sentence and the murder conviction.

Mrs Barker, née Goldsmith, said: "I'm really anxious.

"I've been going through a lot of stress the last few days but I've had a lot of support from family."

The devoted mum, who has been regularly visiting her daughter in London's Holloway Prison, travelled to the capital last night with her two sons to ensure she was there on time to support her daughter.

Justice for Women (JFW) – a feminist organisation that campaigns for women who have fought back against abusive men and then been, they claim, treated unfairly by the courts – has taken on Kirsty's case.

A spokesman for the group said: "The appeal is based on the failure of the judge to adequately sum up the defence of provocation to the jury.

"Provocation is a partial defence to murder that would have reduced the conviction to manslaughter. The judge failed to draw the jury's attention to the violence she had been subjected to and had they been directed to take into account Kirsty's long history of witnessing and experiencing domestic violence and considered how frightened she may have been at the point of the attack then it is most unlikely they would have convicted her of murder."

JFW was due to hold a demonstration outside the Court of Appeal at 9.30am today to allow Kirsty's family, friends and supporters to protest at her murder conviction. Kirsty has always maintained she was acting in self-defence while boyfriend Jason Bull was attacking her at his flat in Beach Street, Sheerness more than four years ago.

Jason died of a single stab wound on March 13 2006, his 28th birthday, when the pair had argued after returning from an afternoon drinking session during which he took cocaine.

The jury was told Jason often hit Kirsty and he was on bail for assaulting her. During the attack that led to his death, Jason hit Kirsty so hard he perforated her eardrum.

Kirsty grew up with domestic violence and she and her mother often lived in refuges to escape her violent father.

While she was in a relationship with Jason, Kirsty worked in a care home for vulnerable adults with behavioural difficulties. When addressing the jury before it made its decision, the judge said Kirsty should have been able to tolerate Jason's erratic outbursts because of her experiences at her workplace. Kirsty was, according to JFW, outraged by this suggestion and said: "My work has nothing to do with what I can or cannot put up with in my personal life. Those residents were not controlling or beating me like he was."