Moate helper loses sentence appeal

One of the two men who helped gunman Raoul Moat during his shotgun rampage - which left a man dead and a police officer blinded – lost a bid to win a reduction in his “excessive” sentence today.

Karl Ness, 26, from Dudley, North Tyneside, who was jailed for life in March and ordered to serve a minimum of 40 years before he can apply for parole, had his case rejected by three Court of Appeal judges in London.