A BID to have the sentence of a murderer who killed his own sister outside their Eastwood home has been rejected. 

Records published by the Attorney General’s Office reveal an application was made to decide if Kevin Shepherd, who was jailed for life with a minimum term of 13 years and 6 months for murdering his sister Sharon Butler in Whitehouse Meadows, received an unduly lenient sentence.

But the case was not referred to the Court of Appeal after being reviewed by the UK's chief legal adviser.

Anyone can ask for certain crown court sentences to be reviewed under the unduly lenient sentence scheme.

The review is conducted by the attorney general or solicitor general who can ask the Court of Appeal to review the sentence if they consider it to be unduly lenient.

It is not known who referred the 55-year-old's sentence to the Attorney General’s Office.

Who is Kevin Shepherd? 

A murder trial was called off in May, on the same day a jury was set to be sworn in, as Kevin Shepherd admitted stabbing Sharon Butler, 64, in the evening of Tuesday, November 7 of last year.

Basildon Crown Court heard an argument started between Shepherd and Mrs Butler as Shepherd “started on at her about money and said the bathroom needed doing” after she had come home from work.

Mrs Butler is then said to have replied "go and get a job then" and the argument, according to the pair’s mother, "snowballed".

Killed - Sharon ButlerKilled - Sharon Butler (Image: Essex Police)

The two continued their confrontation outside before Shepherd returned to the address to collect a knife from a kitchen drawer.

Shepherd phoned 999 at 9.02pm and the police arrived nine minutes later to find a tarpaulin covering Mrs Butler's body in the front garden.

Tracy Ayling KC, mitigating, told the court Shepherd wished it was he who had died instead of Mrs Butler, and that he lashed out following “a loss of control”.

A report prepared by consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Nick Hallett described Shepherd as "quite delusional" and "a space cadet".

The court heard he had diagnoses of mixed anxiety-depressive disorder and borderline personality.