Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

A thug who killed a dad with a single punch during SNOWBALL FIGHT has been jailed for four years.

Callous Ashleigh Hanbury, 29, pelted Kevin Lowry, 54, with hard snow balls as he  play-fought with kids on January 10.

Mr Lowry slipped and fell as he came under a barrage of frozen missiles – and Hanbury then punched him in the side of his head as he lay sprawled on the ground.

Hanbury admitted manslaughter and was jailed at Warwick Crown Court on Wednesday.

Sentencing, Judge Richard Griffith-Jones told him: ”Your case is more serious because it was a wholly unprovoked attack.

”Mr Lowry was completely innocent. He had not done a single thing to deserve criticism let alone violence.

”Mr Lowry was a much loved man. His life, as is all human life, is precious.

”Your response when you discovered that Mr Lowry had died was to say ‘I don’t give a f***, I don’t know him anyway’, as though in some way the fact that you didn’t know him meant his life was less precious.

”I cannot find words that deprecate that attitude with sufficient gravity.”

The court heard how Mr Lowry had been on a night out with two friends when they returned home at around 12.30am in heavy snow.

The taxi could not cope in the snow and had to stop a short distance from their block of flats in Coventry.

An 11-year-old boy started throwing snowballs at the friends ”in jest” and they had a light-hearted snowball fight.

But Hanbury ran down from his flat and joined in the game by throwing hard snowballs at the group ”in a vicious way”.

Mr Lowry tripped as he tried to dodge the throws but Hanbury continued hurling snowballs at him.

Crazed Hanbury yelled he was going to ”knock his head off” and punched Mr Lowry as he lay defenceless on the ground.

Paramedics battled to save Mr Lowry but they could not resuscitate him and he died at the scene.

Prosecutor Peter Grieves-Smith said: ”The defendant continued his assault despite being asked to stop.

”Hanbury turned violent and mistakenly thought that Mr Lowry was the woman’s boyfriend.

”This was an unprovoked assault and it was pre-meditated by the defendant.

”It was carried out on an individual who was not fighting or looking for any trouble at all.”

Martin Winter

Twitter: @swns

Related tags.

• Crime
• snow
• snowball

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