Teenage vicar killer Christopher Hunnisett will learn in two weeks whether he will serve a longer jail term for the murder of an elderly cleric.

Hunnisett, now 19, drowned the Reverend Ronald Glazebrook, 81, in his bath, hacked him to pieces and, with a friend, disposed of his body parts across East Sussex.

Hunnisett was jailed for at least five-and-a-half years on June 21 last year after being unanimously convicted of murder at Lewes Crown Court the day before.

However, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) referred case papers to the Attorney General because it considered the sentence unduly lenient.

The Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, has in turn handed the case to the Court of Appeal in London, which will now hear the case on May 15. The Court of Appeal has the power to change a sentence to any other within the remit of a crown court, under the Criminal Justice Act 1988.

Former Cub Scout Hunnisett was 17 when he murdered Mr Glazebrook in April 2001 at the flat they shared in Dane Road, St Leonards.

The clergyman gave the teenager, formerly of Coventry Road, St Leonards, free run of his Victorian flat after taking him under his wing.

But when Hunnisett feared eviction because of his bullying and increasingly unreasonable behaviour towards the frail cleric, he killed him.

With friend Jason Groves, Hunnisett disposed of the cleric's body parts across Hastings and Bexhill after an aborted bid to dump his body at sea using the Reverend's yacht moored at Newhaven.

The killing sent shock waves throughout Hastings and St Leonards, where the Reverend, in remission with bowel cancer, was well-respected at Christ Church, London Road.

The Reverend came to know Hunnisett through Christ Church, which he had attended since the age of ten.

Groves, who admitted conspiring to prevent the lawful burial of the priest, was sent to a young offenders' institution for two years.