A boxer has been sentenced to 10 years in jail after killing a man with a single punch at a pub last year.
Brandon Sillence was drinking at The Waverley pub in Bangor, North Wales, in September 2020 when he allegedly attacked 'without provocation'.
The 25-year-old used his fists to deliver the fatal blow to the unsuspecting Dean Skillin, 20, which resulted in him 'being brain dead before he hit the ground'.
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Sillence was cleared of murder but admitted manslaughter.
Judge Geraint Walters today described Sillence as 'aggressive, confrontational' and being 'the big I am' on the night of the killing, jailing him for 10 years.
He said: "It was not a warning slap but a forceful punch by a man skilled in punching who knew the kind of damage that you were capable of should you chose to inflict it."
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During the trial, prosecutor John Philpotts said Sillence had approached Skillin and his cousin Taylor Lock before punching them both in front of horrified customers.
The violence erupted outside the pub after Sillence had allegedly been acting 'aggressively'.
Caernarfon Crown Court heard how Sillence was 'keenly interested' in boxing and had filmed himself shadow boxing on numerous occasions.
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Philpotts said: "The punch struck Dean Skillin and fractured the vertebrae, damaging the vertebral artery with the bleeding compromising Dean Skillin's brain stem and resulting in him being brain dead before he hit the ground."
Discussing the attack, Taylor Lock explained that he felt a blow to the left side of his jaw before he regained his senses and saw his cousin unconscious on the floor.
He said: "A man was looking at me very aggressively. He said: 'You think you're big boys'."
Paramedics rushed Dean to hospital where a CT showed a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain.
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He tragically died the following morning, with a post mortem revealing that the blow had caused Dean's skull to rotate 'rapidly and violently' on the top of the spine.
In a victim impact statement, Dean's father Harry said his son 'didn't have a bad bone in his body'.
"He truly was the perfect son in every way," he said, also saying he was 'a lovely lad and an innocent boy'.
His mother Rebecca White said Dean had been 'a strapping 6ft 2in young man' but was now 'in a box smaller than a shoe box in the living room'.
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She said she feels 'anger beyond the anger experienced by other people'.
Featured Image Credit: Wales News Service