The man convicted for his participation in the fatal beating of a gay man in Stanley Park eight years ago was released from prison today -- two years early.

Ryan Cran, 26, took part in the attack that ended the life of Aaron Webster in 2001.

He's only served two-thirds of his sentence for manslaughter, but was released Thursday morning from the Matsqui Institution in Abbotsford.

The news has outraged Webster's family, who say they want changes to a system they say isn't tough enough.

"He should be in jail for 25 years to life," Webster's cousin Denise Norman told CTV News. "He's killed somebody, he's getting out a young man, and he'll be in his mid-twenties."

In November 2001, Aaron Webster was savagely beaten in Stanley Park with bats and golf clubs by a 19-year-old Cran and a group of young men. It was near an area known as a gay stroll. Webster died at the scene.

When Cran was sentenced in 2004, the justice system came under fire. In what was described as a "cowardly and terrifying act," he was sentenced to six years in prison.

But Cran will be released Thursday, two years shy of his full sentence, because he's eligible for statutory release. If the court prosecuted the murder as a hate crime it could have meant a longer sentence.

"The hate crime legislation is there, why are these people so cowardly to apply it?" Webster's sister Pamela Miller asked in 2005.

At the time, the judge ruled there was no evidence before the court that Webster was targeted because he was gay. But four years later, the system is being questioned again.

"Get rid of this statutory release. And if you're going to continue with statutory release, put some restrictions on them that mean something," said Norman.

Community advocates agree.

"I want to know that he's fit and able to function in society without that form of violence, he expressed in that brutal murder of our friend Aaron Webster," said Jim Deva.

"Will he be walking up and down Davie St. in the next week or two? That would be problematic for his own safety and our community's safety."

Under the release conditions, Ryan Cran will have to live, work or go to school in the New Westminster area. He will not be allowed to travel without special permission.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Leah Hendry.