HE LAID his life on the line to disarm a man who brought terror to motorists on a busy road in Hampshire by wielding a gun.

But now heroic policeman Howard Miell feels the public and the police force have been let down by Britain's top judges.

He spoke of his anger after the Criminal Court of Appeal in London slashed Jason Hall's four-year jail sentence by a year for being "excessive".

A barrister argued that 21-year-old Hall's offence last October was not so bad after all as the gun was fake and he was behaving in prison.

PC Howard Miell, 30, had been commended for bravery for his actions when he confronted Hall, who was levelling a metal pistol at cars on the Rushington roundabout, near Totton.

The pistol later turned out to be a replica, but PC Miell didn't know that when Hall pointed it at his face and threatened to kill him.

The officer today took the unusual step of speaking publicly about his sense of anger and shock following the appeal outcome.

Hall, formerly of Copse Close, Totton, had been jailed in January, after pleading guilty at Southampton Crown Court to two counts of possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear.

For PC Miell, a Lyndhurst based traffic officer, no amount of leaf-turning by Hall can make up for his actions.

"I'm upset, to put it mildly," he said.

"I am angry not just for myself but for all those members of the public who had what looked like a gun pointed at them as they drove along. I know what I felt when the gun was aimed at me.

"They didn't know the gun was a fake. One of those cars had two children in the back. What if the driver had panicked?"

PC Miell, who has received two official bravery commendations for facing up to Hall, and is to be honoured at the National Police Awards in July, said reducing Hall's sentence was wrong.

"The public are being let down. Behaving well in prison doesn't change the crime for which Hall was jailed," he said.

"Hall wrote to me recently saying he was sorry and asking me to forgive him. His letter went straight in the bin. Now I've heard about his appeal I know why he wrote it."

Hall's appeal barrister, James Austin-Smith, argued that the sentence was "manifestly excessive" and did not reflect his mitigation - the gun had been fake, his actions were not premeditated, and he admitted his offence at the first opportunity.

Appeal Court judge Mr Justice Mitchell said Hall had "created an extremely dangerous situation on a dual carriageway by which he stood with the imitation firearm".

But he added that the picture from various reports showed Hall was a changed man making progress in jail.

Southampton Test MP Dr Alan Whitehead, who is spearheading a Bill to make it illegal to possess a replica gun in a public place, gave his reaction to the news.

He said people facing replica guns had the same level of fear as those facing real guns, as they did not know the difference between the two at the time.

He said: "If you are using a replica gun to commit a crime it does not seem to me to be an important or significant defence to say it was a replica."