Two drug addicts who clubbed and stabbed a disabled pensioner to death in a frenzied attack before setting the body on fire did not receive "unduly lenient" sentences, the Court of Appeal has ruled.
Graham Ellis (25) and John McAfee (23) were jailed for life at Wolverhampton Crown Court last December and told they would each have to serve at least 20 years behind bars before they can be considered for release on parole.
An application was made to appeal judges on behalf of the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith QC, that a minimum prison term of 20 years was too low.
But the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips, sitting with two other judges in London, ruled that the tariffs, although lenient, were not "unduly lenient".
Lord Phillips said: "Life sentences with a minimum term of 20 years are equivalent to a determinate sentence of 40 years.
"No one can describe such sentences as light sentences for young men such as these defendants."
Ellis and McAfee broke into the home of 76-year-old Ben Jones, beat him and while he lay helpless on the floor stabbed him 13 times in the back. They then tried to cover up the crime by setting the body and his house alight.
Trial judge Mrs Justice Dobbs said she accepted that it was a burglary that went wrong and not a premeditated murder.
"Having said that, the victim - an elderly man - was subjected to a horrific and frenzied attack, beaten to the head and felled."
Father-of-two Ellis, of Hickman Road, Tipton, and McAfee, of Fereday Street, Tipton, had both denied murder, but were convicted of the offence.
They had broken into Mr Jones' Fereday Street flat in April 2004 to feed their crack cocaine and heroine addiction. They took two television sets but missed £20,000 cash Mr Jones had inside an organ.
