"Cases such as this can present a difficult sentencing exercise. In mitigation are your character, your early plea, your remorse and the fact that the violence was limited to the one punch. Against that is the background of excessive drinking, without which this incident would probably never have happened at all. At the time you struck your victim he was doing nothing at all to you, and there was no possible justification for the use of any violence; and, of course, the fact that death resulted shows why courts must always take a serious view of any unlawful violence because unintended results are always possible. Each year at courts around the country a number of similar cases occur where people die as the result of one blow, showing that this is by no means an unusual situation. A number of those cases have found their way to the Court of Appeal. In the last 24 hours I have read various judgments given by the Court of Appeal in such cases over the last few years, and, like counsel, I find it difficult to reconcile those cases one with another. What is clear, however, is that there has been a recognition in recent years that too little attention was sometimes paid in the past to the fact of loss of human life, and in my judgment that must be right. Causing the death of another human being by unlawful violence must result in a sentence of some length."
"It should be noted at the outset that this is the circumstance which we have to examine: where a person receives a blow, probably one blow only, to the head or face, is knocked over by the blow and unfortunately cracks his head on the floor or the pavement, suffers a fractured skull and dies. It is to be distinguished sharply from the sort of case where a victim on the ground is kicked about the head. It is to be distinguished sharply from the sort of case where a weapon is used in order to inflict injury. It is further to be distinguished from where the actual blow itself inflicts the injury which causes the death. This is the case of a fall almost accidentally resulting in a fractured skull." 15. "
"9. .... The cause of death was a subarachnoid haemorrhage caused by a combination of the twisting of his neck by the blow, the angle of the blow, and the dilation of blood vessels that occurred in a man who had been drinking. The medical evidence was that it was a very unusual combination of circumstances which caused the death, though the doctor added that in his experience the combination had occurred more often recently."
"10. .... having considered the very many authorities which we have now considered, it is in truth not realistic to treat what is described as one-punch manslaughter as comprising a single identical set of circumstances. Cases involving death which result from a single blow vary greatly in their seriousness. That fact is reflected in the very wide range of sentences which have been imposed by different courts dealing with them."
"15. What has struck us, as we have considered this case, apart from the particular circumstances which we have already endeavoured to outline in this judgment, is that this kind of unnecessary violence, in residential areas, creates great, and justified, and increasing public concern. People expect their streets to be safe, and they particularly expect them to be safe for children using them and for the elderly walking in them. This case, if nothing else, has the aggravating feature that two children saw this man poleaxed to the ground and left there unconscious. 16. Those who are violent, as this offender was, and in the circumstances in which he was, have to face up to the consequences of their actions, even if the consequences were unintended."
"22. In the present case there was a plea and certainly there was a good deal of personal mitigation available. Moreover, the blow was accepted as being one of moderate force, and further, there had previously been, as the judge found, some degree of provocation. But, as against that, this blow was administered as the culmination of what had been, in effect, quite a nasty incident of affray in a busy town centre at night. The appellant, on any view, had played a full and active part in that. Further, it was he who followed after the victim (plainly, it is to be inferred, bent on revenge) when the victim was trying to remove himself from the scene and had walked away.... 23. There is also the important point that the Courts must, as we see it, increasingly factor into sentences in this kind of case the need to deter gratuitous violence in city centres, or outside pubs and clubs, which causes such city centres or places to be perceived as menacing and dangerous places at night by the law-abiding public."
"9. .... When it is the habit of young men (and young women) to drink excessively and then behave out of character, it is important that the courts send a message that there are very real dangers in embarking in that sort of binge drinking. It may cause a person to behave in a way which is out of character. While the courts wish to be sympathetic towards offenders, they must bear in mind the consequences of the offence as a whole on the public. The problem is that when drinking at this level takes place, what starts as an exhibition of high spirits descends into conduct which is criminal."