Alan Barefoot death: Benjamin Calvert jailed for one-punch killing

Benjamin Calvert was said to have drunk heavily on the night he fatally punched Alan Barefoot

A man has been jailed for the one-punch killing of a new father outside a pub in North Yorkshire.

Alan Barefoot, 31, from South Kilvington, died from catastrophic head injuries after he was assaulted in Thirsk's Market Place in October 2021.

Benjamin Calvert, 22, of King's Gardens, Thirsk, had pleaded guilty to manslaughter at an earlier hearing.

Sentencing him at Leeds Crown Court, Judge Tom Bayliss KC said he would serve five years four months in prison.

A second defendant, Thomas Cressey, 25, of Church Lane, Boroughbridge, was given a six-month suspended sentence for affray along with an evening curfew.

Prosecutors said Mr Barefoot had been drinking at the Royal in Thirsk on 16 October 2021, his first night out after the birth of his daughter two weeks earlier.

An argument began after he was suspected of taking a drink from the bar by Cressey's brother.

It resulted in him being ejected from the pub, which was run by Calvert's parents, and CCTV showed a group of people falling out into the street.

At no point did Mr Barefoot appear to respond aggressively, the court heard, but a young woman was injured as the group fell.

In a witness statement, her partner said he asked Mr Barefoot to leave and at that point he said the victim had verbally egged-on Cressey.

He said Cressey had "flipped" and headbutted the victim.

Mr Barefoot fell but got up and Cressey returned to the pub.

Witnesses said Mr Barefoot appeared "dazed" and it was at this point Calvert punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground.

Alan Barefoot had recently become a father

The emergency services were called and Mr Barefoot was taken to hospital, but died from catastrophic head injuries on 24 October.

Police were called and Calvert, who had left the scene, was asked to return and was arrested. Cressey handed himself in later.

The court heard Calvert had drunk 10 to 12 pints of lager and had cocaine in his system. He told police he could not remember what happened, though he had disposed of the clothes he was wearing.

Victim impact statements were read in court from Mr Barefoot's mother Karen Banks, his sister Shelby Timms and his partner Charlotte Dickinson.

Judge Bayliss said they "vividly and movingly described their anguish and enduring sense of loss", and he had that loss in mind as he passed sentence.

He said what followed after Mr Barefoot's ejection from the pub had been "grossly disproportionate and entirely unjustified", though he accepted both defendants were "consumed by remorse".

Speaking after sentencing, Ms Dickinson, using her partner's nickname Bezzy, said: "All of our daughter's firsts will be missed by Bezzy, her first birthday was definitely the hardest and this will be the same for Bezzy's other children."

Det Insp Steve Menzies, from North Yorkshire Police, said it had been an "incredibly sad case" where a young man had lost his life as a result of a minor argument "fuelled by alcohol" made worse by other people getting involved.

"Both Cressey and Calvert could have just walked away from the situation, but instead they chose to get involved in the altercation," he said.