A KILLER who stabbed a friend through the heart in a street fight after he was called "a divvy" was today jailed for six years.

Craig Conway, 30, admitted the manslaughter of Simon Bennett, 28, and was cleared of murder after a trial lasting two weeks.

Conway denied taking a knife to the scene of what was said to have been an arranged fight after the men argued earlier in the day.

He said he picked up something from the ground as the pair tussled, swung a punch with it in his hand, and stabbed his pal.

Mr Bennett died of catastrophic blood loss within an hour of being wounded at The Greenway, Thorntree, Middlesbrough, in May.

The two men - who had been friends for years - are said to have fallen out about rumours in their neighbourhood, and a debt.

On his way to the clash, Conway sent a text to father-of-one Mr Bennett, a barber, saying: "Don't call me a divvy."

Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, told Conway that he had changed the nature of a fair fist fight by using a weapon.

Tim Roberts, QC, mitigating, said Conway, of Epworth Green, Middlesbrough, had shown "genuine remorse and contrition".