NEWS11 January 2008
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NEWS11 January 2008
But Tony Hoare’s attacker will serve only half his sentence behind bars
UK— The man who killed market researcher and gay awareness worker Tony Hoare with a single punch after a row about dogs will be freed in less than a year.
Hoare, 49, died almost instantly after being felled by a right hook from Leslie Kingshott in Charlton Park, south east London, following a row in the nearby White Swan pub.
The force of the blow to his jaw tore an artery at the base of his brain, causing a massive haemorrhage.
Both men were drinking in the pub on the evening of 11 September last year. The Old Bailey heard that the attacker felt “belittled” after Hoare had asked him to control his dogs after they came loose and began barking at the victim’s pets and had to be separated.
Hoare was the founder of Stormbreak, a market research consultancy specialising in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
He had researched homophobic crime for the Metropolitan Police for several years and had recently published a report claiming there was wide under-reporting of gay hate crime in London.
Today, on his 43rd birthday, Kingshott was jailed for two and a half years after admitting manslaughter.
But the Common Serjeant of London Brian Barker QC said the killer would serve only half his sentence behind bars before being released.
As a result Kingshott, who has already served four months on remand, will be free in 11 months.
After the sentence had been announced Hoare’s partner Rob Bowen, 45, shouted from the public gallery: “That’s so wrong, that’s so wrong. How can you sleep at night? That’s not justice.”
Author: Court reporter
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