A POLISH national convicted of murdering a Chard woman in 2012 has dropped an appeal against his conviction and life term.

Catherine Wells-Burr, 23, was smothered by her boyfriend Rafal Nowak as she slept at their home.

His accomplices, former lover Anna Lagwinowicz and her uncle Tadevsz Dmytryszyn, disposed of Miss Wells-Burr’s body in her car before setting it on fire.

The trio was handed a 32-year jail sentence in June last year after being found guilty of her murder following a six-week trial at Bristol Crown Court.

Dmytryszyn lodged an appeal against his conviction and sentence in December.

But the Court of Appeal has confirmed that the appeal was dropped on June 21.

Nowak and Lagwinowicz have applied to serve their sentences in Poland.

The murderers’ minimum tariffs could be cut to 25 years if they are transferred to prisons there.

Catherine’s family has campaigned for the killers to complete their sentences in the UK.

Earlier this year they were accompanied by local MP David Laws to 10 Downing Street to hand a petition over in support of the killers serving their sentences here.

More than 6,500 people signed the online petition and another 3,000 handwritten signatures were presented to Mr Cameron in March.

Speaking to the News at the time, mother Jayne Wells-Burr said if Nowak and Lagwinowicz were transferred to Poland it would be ‘wrong’ and would make a ‘mockery’ of the justice system.

She said: “We have the life sentence and so did her friends and work colleagues.

“We don’t agree that they should go back to Poland to serve a lesser sentence – we’ll never know if they’re truly remorseful for their actions.”