A UNIVERSITY lecturer who tried to help three killers evade justice after they shot dead a Southampton dad has had her jail sentence increased by two years.

The Court of Appeal ruled today that Rachel Kenehan's jail term of three-and-a-half-years for helping Jahmel Jones' killers was too short and have increased her sentence to five-and-a-half-years.

Pierre Lewis, Jemmikai Orlebar-Forbes and Issac Boateng, were jailed for a total of 90 years in March for murdering rival drug dealer Jahmel Jones, who was gunned down in a flat in St Mary Street, Southampton, in April last year.

After the shooting Lewis's girlfriend, 35-year-old Kenehan, allowed the three men to hide in her London flat for several days.

She also tried to destroy any forensic evidence on a pair of Lewis's shoes by cleaning them with white spirit, and was jailed for three-and-a-half years.

Kenehan, of Bow, east London, was a lecture/ researcher and a PhD student in criminology at the London Metropolitan University.

Bosses from the Crown Prosecution Service said they felt the sentence was not enough and asked the Solicitor General to refer the matter to the Court of Appeal.

Today the case was heard by three High Court judges, headed by Lady Justice Rafferty, who decided the sentence given to Kenehan at Winchester Crown Court for conspiring to supply Class A, assisting an offender and perverting the course of justice was too short.

John Montague, Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service in Wessex, said the new sentence reflects the seriousness of the offence.

He added: “We welcome the decision of the Court of Appeal to increase the sentence of Rachel Kenehan who assisted very dangerous offenders currently serving life imprisonment for the murder of Jahmel Jones.”