The Korean community this week awaits the Court of Appeal hearing into the "body in the freezer" case which saw teacher Paul Dalton jailed for killing his wife and storing her dismembered body in a freezer.

A judge at the court will tomorrow consider whether the concurrent sentences of two years for manslaughter and three years for preventing the burial of a body were unduly lenient.

A judge, acting on a request from the Attorney General, will review relevant evidence from the Old Bailey trial in which Dalton, 35, from Woodside Road, Kingston, was cleared of murder but convicted of the manslaughter of his wife Tae Hui Dalton, 38, in 2004.

The sentence, handed down in July of last year, caused outrage in Tae Hui's homeland of South Korea, and film crews flocked to the area to interview Surrey Comet staff, the Crown Prosecution Service and barristers to find out what had happened.

The chairman of the UK's Korean Residents' Society Dr Woo Seung Shin lobbied with other Korean representatives in Britain to contest the sentence and held memorial ceremonies in Tae Hui's honour.

He said: "Killing people and mutilating their bodies into nine pieces does not fit a sentence of only five years and is unacceptable from the Korean community's point of view."

He said the community felt there was an imbalance in the trial, with much heard about Tae Hui's aggression and how a single blow from Dalton during a heated argument proved fatal, while nobody gave evidence in support of the victim.

Editor of Korean News Jeff Shin said the community was happy to have the appeal and was waiting on the outcome.

It is not thought Tae Hui's family, who live in South Korea were planning to attend the appeal.

Last year a Korean documentary maker visited the Surrey Comet and said the idea of even touching a dead body was shocking to South Koreans. The country takes a hard line on crime and still has the death penalty for the worst offences.

Any or all evidence can be called during the appeal.

The judge will decide on the day whether to pass decision there and then or take the information away to consider.

q See next week's Surrey Comet for the full story.