A prison sentence handed to a hit-and-run driver is to be reviewed after a Berkshire paper urged readers to lodge protests with the Attorney General.

At Reading Crown Court last Friday Timon Douglin, 19, was given 39 months for mowing down and killing 28-year-old Ryan Batt last summer.

The Reading Post carried instructions online and in Wednesday’s print edition explaining the rules of lodging an appeal, along with the email address of Attorney General Baroness Scotland’s office.

As a result of the Reading Post and its readers’ actions, the sentence could now come under a full review.

A spokesman for the Attorney General told the Post: “We have asked the Crown Prosecution Service to provide the full case papers so that the Law Officers can consider whether or not to refer the sentence passed in this case to the Court of Appeal for review.”

The tragedy happened on 1 June last year while Ryan was walking home along a pavement in the Whitley area of Reading.

Douglin said he was swerving to avoid a fox and denied knowing he had struck Mr Batt.

This was dismissed by the judge as evidence showed that Mr Batt’s head had hit the car’s windscreen before he was thrown into a nearby garden.

He had taken the car without permission, was uninsured and was driving at 60mph in a 40mph zone, the Post reports.

Douglin admitted causing death by dangerous driving and was given three years and three months in prison.

Deputy editor Hilary Scott told HTFP: “The maximum sentence for death by dangerous driving is 14 years and to hand it down the judge must find three or more aggravating factors – we believe there were at least three in this case.

“We could also see by the comments on our website how our readers were outraged by the sentence and reacted quickly to give them a practical outlet for their anger.”