Ricky Hayden: Man jailed over bodyguard stab death

Tommy Roome, who was 19 at the time, stabbed Ricky Hayden in the thigh with a machete

A man has been jailed for killing a celebrity bodyguard who was stabbed with a machete outside his London home.

Ricky Hayden, 27, and his father Paul, 54, were attacked by Tommy Roome as they tried to stop a moped being stolen from outside their home in Chadwell Heath on 13 September 2016.

Roome, who was 19 at the time, was found not guilty of murdering Ricky Hayden, but convicted of manslaughter.

He was jailed for 14 years, with a further five years on extended licence.

Sentencing Roome, Judge Philip Katz QC said it was a "shocking" killing witnessed by numerous people.

A group of family and friends of the victim gathered outside the court waving banners and placards

He told Roome he showed a "compete absence of any compassion" for killing a well-respected man who "unlike you made something of his life".

He said: "I am sure that your use of a knife was not a sudden or spontaneous reaction to a meaningful threat of violence from the Haydens.

"In the circumstances you knew perfectly well that using such a weapon to stab anyone might easily cause lethal injury."

Ricky Hayden was stabbed outside his home in Chadwell Heath

In a victim impact statement, Mr Hayden's mother, Suzanne Hedges, said the family had been "crushed" by his death.

"Ricky was our boy. He was kind, caring and honest with a cheeky streak", she said.

She last spoke to him on the phone when he called her up just to say: "I love you", the court heard.

Ms Hedges described listening to the "sickening" details of the case and the way her son was attacked while he was "vulnerable, unarmed, unprepared, confused and wearing nothing but his underwear".

The teaching assistant added: "I would have given my own life in a heartbeat just to have saved him the pain and fear he must have felt at that moment."

The 27-year-old (left) worked as a security guard at the wedding of Peter Crouch and Abbey Clancy in 2011

Mr Hayden ran out of his house wearing only a pair of boxer shorts on the night of the incident, believing youths were about to snatch his brother's scooter.

He died from a stab wound to the thigh a day after he was attacked in Gibbfield Close at about 01:25 BST.

He had worked in security at ITV and acted as a bodyguard for high-profile celebrities including footballer Peter Crouch and model Abbey Clancy.