A man has been jailed for four-and-a-half years after killing a pedestrian with a punch to the head following a row with a cyclist about riding on the pavement.
Footage was released of the moment when Lewis Gill, 20, struck Andrew Young, who had become embroiled moments earlier in an argument with one of Gill's friends, Victor Ibitoye.
After Young argued with Ibitoye, telling him that cycling on the pavement was dangerous, Gill approached the pedestrian in broad daylight in a busy shopping area of Bournemouth and punched him in the face.
The CCTV footage showed Young, who was 40 years old, falling backwards following the sudden blow and striking his head on the road surface.
A number of passersby rushed to the aid of Young, who was rushed to hospital. He died the following day from his head injuries.
Gill was jailed at Salisbury crown court last Friday after he pleaded guilty to a charge of manslaughter, prompting Young's grieving mother, Pamela, to describe the sentence handed down as a "joke".
"I saw the CCTV footage in court and you can see that Andrew didn't cause Lewis Gill any harm," she said. "I sat with him when he died. I wish that awful man who took my son away had pleaded not guilty so he would have got a longer sentence.
"The sentence is an absolute joke. I'm a committed Christian, but I think that if someone takes a life, they should be prepared to forfeit their own.
"There have been many people who have committed manslaughter or murder in this country and they never even serve a full sentence."
4 1/2 years?
4 1/2 years?
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
