Intervention from the Swindon Advertiser helped a bereaved mum keep the killer of her only son in prison for Christmas.

Anne Styles’ teenage son Matthew was killed by a dangerous driver in June last year and the man handed a five year jail sentence for the crime was due out on a temporary licence on Christmas Eve.

But after asking the Swindon Advertiser to help publicise her distress she was delighted when the prison service decided to change its mind and deny 37-year-old Gary Huckin the time out of jail.

She is hailing the decision a victory for victims of crime.

Dangerous driver Gary Huckin fled from the accident, only giving himself up 36 hours later.

The accident killed his passenger Matthew, (19), and seriously injured another passenger when their car hit a tree.

But less than a year after the conviction for causing death by dangerous driving, he was being considered for release on a temporary licence.

Anne complained to the probation service and the newspaper also took up her fight.

She thanked the Advertiser for its help in keeping her son’s killer behind bars and said: “It’s really good news, because I was so angry.

“It won’t do anything to help my sense of loss, but it would have been a lot worse to picture him and his family sitting down to Christmas dinner.”

Wiltshire probation service manager Mal Munday said: “The probation service feeds information into the prison, which makes the final decision about possible release periods.”

He said that publicity surrounding the case had been taken into account, and that the distress that would have been caused to Mrs Styles had also been considered.