One of the killers of Garry Newlove - who was kicked to death outside his home - can be released from prison after the Parole Board dismissed a bid to keep him behind bars.
Justice Secretary Robert Buckland challenged the board's decision to allow Jordan Cunliffe to be released, following a suspected alcohol-related incident in his cell in December last year.
The now-29-year-old, 15 when part of the group who attacked Mr Newlove in Warrington, threw the bash while behind bars, celebrating his pending freedom.
Reports state there were six to eight people in his cell drinking alcohol and playing Xbox games which led to complaints of noise.
The incident then triggered the Parole Board to reconsider their recommendation and Cunliffe's expected release was halted.
He was transferred from an open jail to closed conditions.
Now, the Parole Board has rubber stamped his release after Judge Michael Topolski QC said there were "no compelling reasons to interfere with the decision."
Cunliffe, who is registered blind, is serving life for his part in the alcohol-fuelled killing of 47-year-old father-of-three Mr Newlove outside his home in 2007.
He was one of three teenagers found guilty of murder by a jury at Chester Crown Court in January 2008.
Aged 16 at the time of conviction, he was sentenced to serve a minimum of 12 years, which expired on August 14 last year, Judge Topolski said.
The Parole Board considered Cunliffe's release at a hearing last December, but the decision was reconsidered following the gathering of prisoners inside his cell days before Christmas.
Judge Topolski said it was believed that "some alcohol" had been consumed, adding: "They were noisy and there was some violence, but it was not suggested that the respondent (Cunliffe) was involved in that violence."
Cunliffe had refused to take a breathalyser test and gave "different accounts of what happened", Judge Topolski said.
As a result of the incident, Cunliffe was moved from an open prison into "closed conditions".
His case was adjourned in April for six months, but following a hearing in September, the Parole Board decided he should be released.
Mr Buckland challenged the decision, claiming that because of the December incident "there was insufficient evidence that there had been a sufficient reduction in the respondent's (Cunliffe's) risk to justify release".
But Judge Topolski said the Parole Board had "applied the statutory test" and found it was "no longer necessary for the protection of the public" for Cunliffe to remain in prison.
He said: "It is important to stress that that was the opinion of all the professional witnesses from whom the OHP (Parole Board) heard except for the prison psychologist whose opinion was that there should be a further period of consolidation before the respondent's release."
Mr Newlove, 47, was assaulted in August 2007 in the Fearnhead area of Warrington.
He was "kicked like a football” after confronting youths over damage to his wife’s car.
The salesman was left unconscious in the street, having suffered massive head injuries, and died in hospital two days later.
Cunliffe's mum, Janet, has always argued her son didn't take part in the murder, claiming he was wrongly convicted through Joint Enterprise laws.
The parent insists the teenager was registered blind at the time, "did not hear or see anything" and while with the gang, did not participate in the killing.
A jury, however, disagreed, and a judge ordered Cunliffe to serve a minimum of 12 years behind bars following his conviction for murder.
A Parole Board spokesman said: "The Parole Board has immense sympathy for the families of murder victims and recognises the pain and anguish they have endured.
"A senior judge of the board has rejected the application for reconsideration and found that the decision of the original panel was a rational one which was justified by the evidence they considered."
The reconsideration panel, introduced by the Parole Board in 2019, allows the Secretary of State and prisoners to ask for decisions to be reviewed if they feel they are unfair or irrational.
The Parole Board spokesman was unable to give an exact date for Cunliffe's release.
After news of the jail party emerged, Mr Newlove's widow, Baroness Newlove, said: "How is he able to have a party in prison with alcohol? It beggars belief.
"Cunliffe was a huge instigator in Garry's death.
"It feels like he is laughing over Garry's body all over again."
Ringleader Adam Swellings and Stephen Sorton were given minimum terms of 17 and 15 years respectively.
On the night of the attack, Mr Newlove left his home, barefoot, to remonstrate with a gang who had smashed the window of a digger parked nearby.
His daughter Amy, who had been reading in her bedroom, had called him after looking out of her window and seen a youth kicking her mum’s car.
Police initially arrested 25 youths in the aftermath of the killing.
