The mother of a woman knifed to death was “absolutely disgusted” to learn the man who murdered her daughter had tried to overturn his conviction.

June Sadler says she and her family were completely unaware Foster Christian had made a bid to clear his name until coverage of the hearing was reported online.

She had watched in court in October 2016 as the 55-year-old was jailed for a minimum of 30 years for killing Natasha Sadler-Ellis and her friend Simon Gorecki at a shared house in Dickens Avenue, Canterbury.

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He was also found guilty of wounding Ms Sadler-Ellis’ son, Connaugh Harris, 20, with intent, and wounding a 16-year-old boy.

But on Thursday, Christian’s legal team attempted to win the right to appeal the convictions, branding them “unsafe”.

Mrs Sadler, from Margate, did not know of the court bid until a story was carried on KentOnline the same day.

“I was absolutely disgusted when I saw it,” she said.

“We had no idea whatsoever how this monster could be allowed to appeal.

“For a top ranking barrister to say his convictions are unsafe is appalling. There should be no way this should be allowed to happen.

“We should have been informed and we should have had the opportunity to attend the hearing.”

London’s Appeal Court heard how Christian lived in the Dickens Avenue house with 49-year-old Mr Gorecki. Ms Sadler-Ellis, 40, lived nearby.

There had been previous incidents in the house involving Christian and Mr Gorecki, said the judge.

On March 29, 2016, they got into a “verbal dispute” over the temperature of water in the property’s shower.

When the victims entered Christian’s room, he stabbed all four of them with a knife.

The wounds inflicted on Mr Gorecki and Ms Sadler-Ellis proved fatal.

The teenager was left with life-threatening injuries, while Mr Harris’s wounds were less serious.

Christian claimed at his trial that he had acted in self-defence, but the jury disbelieved him.

His barrister, Rajiv Menon QC, on Thursday argued that jurors should have been allowed to consider a defence of “loss of control”.

He added that the trial judge was wrong to let jurors hear of Christian’s previous convictions.

But Lord Justice Simon said the judge’s ruling on loss of control was “entirely reasonable”.

And it was “quite right” that jurors were told about Christian’s convictions for wounding with intent in 1985 and 1989.

“The renewed application for permission to appeal is refused,” ruled the judge, who was sitting with Mr Justice Spencer and Judge Martin Picton.

Mrs Sadler says Christian should be put to death for his crimes.

“In my opinion he should be hung for what he’s done,” she said. “He’s smashed people’s lives to pieces. The death penalty should be reinstated.”

Explaining why Mrs Sadler was not told of the court hearing, a Crown Prosecution Service spokesman said: “In this case the defendant sought permission to appeal, but this was refused by the court at an initial hearing.

“In order to minimise distress to the families of victims, the CPS will only notify them of applications to appeal if they pass the initial stage and proceed to a full hearing.

“Because the application was struck out at the earliest stage, we did not notify the families on this occasion, in line with our standard procedures.”