AN ONLINE petition to keep killer Anwar Rosser caged for life has been launched by the family of murdered four-year-old Riley Turner.

They have joined with local anti-crime group Stop the Thieves in Keighley to instigate a campaign opposed to Rosser’s current appeal against his whole-life jail term.

And it has already garnered five thousand signatures in just five days since it went live on the internet.

Little Riley’s heartbroken mum Sharon Smith has voiced her disgust that the brutal killer of her son is appealing and said the "vile monster" must rot in jail.

Rosser strangled and stabbed Riley repeatedly while the boy slept at his home in Harewood Road, Bracken Bank, in January last year.

But the Court of Appeal has decided to grant Rosser a full hearing in his bid to overturn the sentence handed down to the 33-year-old at Bradford Crown Court where he admitted his guilt in February this year.

A spokesman for Stop the Thieves in Keighley said they were working with the family to get a change in the law to ban murderers who plead guilty from appealing against their sentences at the taxpayer’s expense.

“Keighley people are disgusted that this man has been allowed to appeal and is being funded by legal aid," a group spokesman said.

“We’ve only got a few weeks until the appeal is heard so we can’t mess about.

“Our goal is 100,000 signatures to show just how angry people are about this and hopefully make parliament change the rules on appeals.

“It’s just wrong that legal aid should be used to support self-confessed killers like Rosser."

The online petition can be found at http://nit.do/justice-for-riley.

“We’ve already got nearly 5,000 signatures which is brilliant.," added the spokesman

“And we’re also going to be putting paper petitions in key points around Keighley and going door-to-door to reach people without computers."

Kris Hopkins MP said: “This man committed one of the most vile and sickening crimes of modern times in this country and was rightly sentenced to a whole life term – the stiffest penalty available to any British judge. It is, of course, incredibly disturbing for Riley’s family that Rosser has chosen to appeal his sentence and I share the widespread outrage at the news that a full hearing will now take place. But I have every faith in our justice system and believe unequivocally that evil monsters such as him should remain locked away for ever more.”