Anger at two-year jail term for killer

Dec 5 2007

ANTI-CRIME campaigners reacted with fury last night after a drunken stranger who punched a Merseyside father-of-two to death received a “derisory” two year jail sentence.

Alan Thompson, a loving father and husband, was killed when Joseph Dutton punched him in an unprovoked attack, Liverpool Crown Court heard yesterday.

The “full blooded right hook” knocked Mr Thompson, 42, to the ground fracturing his skull, and he died in hospital a week later.

Dutton, 20, of Fernhill Road, Bootle, who had got out of a car and punched Mr Thompson as he walked towards his home in Litherland, pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Sentencing him to two years detention, Judge Henry Globe, QC, the Recorder of Liverpool, said the victim, whose 12-year-old son Liam, 18-year-old daughter Emma and long term partner Josephine, were in the crowded public gallery, had been described as “a gentle, loving husband and dad.”

“He comes from a large extended family all of whom are grieving by reason of the unnecessary, illogical and unlawful manner of his death.”

Judge Globe said the incident had involved just one blow and reports showed Dutton had acted totally out of character. He had displayed genuine remorse. about the catastrophic consequences of his actions.

“This was unprovoked street violence late at night for no apparent reason,” said the judge.

But Norman Brennan, a serving police officer and chairman of the Victims of Crime Trust, last night said the sentence left him “in despair”.

He said: “Sentences like these prove what weasel words this government spoke when they said ‘tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime’.

“This is the exact type of behaviour this government keeps telling us they are clamping down on, yet when the police put offenders before the courts, we see derisory sentences like this which in reality will mean 12 months.

“That’s the value the criminal justice system is putting on the life of an innocent member of the public when they are the victim of a violent, unprovoked and unnecessary attack by some moronic individual who was probably doing it for a thrill.

“I despair, my police colleagues despair and the public despair at the criminal justice system and here is a prime example.”

Anne Whyte, prosecuting, told the court Mr Thompson went out on the evening of June 8 this year with two of his brothers to an engagement party.

They then went to a pub and eventually his brothers went home and he went to the Tavern Club in Bootle, where he was described as “pleasant and polite”. He left about 2.15am and a quarter of an hour later was seen walking along Litherland Road.

A resident heard noises and looking out of his window saw a red car screech to a halt and Dutton got out of the passenger side.

“He began gesturing with a finger towards Mr Thompson and shouting at him.”

The neighbour then saw Dutton punch Mr Thompson once to the left side of the face and he immediately fell against a parked car and then the ground. Dutton got back in the car which drove off. It returned a short time later but then moved off.

Paramedics arrived and found the victim unresponsive lying between parked cars and he was taken to Aintree Hospital. He regained consciousness but died a week later on June 15.

He had suffered a fracture to the back of his skull and brain damage, said Miss Whyte.

Jeremy Rawson, defending, said Dutton did not recall the exact details of the incident because he was drunk, but he accepted the prosecution case.

“He does not seek to blame anybody but himself.” He is full of remorse and devastated by the events and extends his apologies to the complainant’s family.

“He accepts it was an unprovoked assault and he struck the complainant when there was no need to have done so,” he said.