THE ringleader of a boozy teenage gang who kicked dad-of-three Garry Newlove to death should move to an open prison, the Parole Board says.
The recommendation comes two years before Adam Swellings becomes eligible for release.
Justice Secretary Dominic Raab must now make a ruling.
Swellings, of Crewe, was 19 when he was jailed for a minimum of 17 years in 2008 for the murder in Warrington.
Mr Newlove had confronted the gang about vandalism before being beaten to the ground and kicked “like a football”.
Two other yobs have since been freed.
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The Parole Board said Swellings, now 33, had made “progress” and his conduct had been “regarded as exemplary”.
They added that at the time of his crimes he covered his “low self-esteem” with “arrogance in order to maintain status with anti-social friends”.
He supposedly drank and used cannabis and “had difficulties dealing with extremes of emotion, including feelings of anger which were expressed in the form of extreme aggression”.
He will not be eligible for release until August 2024 after the minimum term of his sentence elapses.
