A MAN who killed his neighbour with a single “haymaker”

punch, after rivalry between pub football teams led to violence, was yesterday jailed for seven years.

Maurice Rowell struck Stephen Wilson with the killer blow outside The Beehive, a pub in Bishop Auckland, following a row over a match early on August 10.

Witnesses heard a “crack”

when Mr Wilson fell to the ground and his skull hit the concrete. He died in hospital the next day from severe brain swelling and acute haemorrhaging.

Last month, a jury at Teesside Crown Court found 26-year-old Rowell guilty of the manslaughter of Mr Wilson, a 48-year-old kitchen fitter.

The pair lived only a few doors apart, in Hardisty Crescent, Bishop Auckland.

Rowell, whose parents run The Beehive, claimed he was acting in self-defence and that, fearing an attack from Mr Wilson, he had merely landed the first blow.

The court heard how Rowell had already floored the “tall and skinny” Mr Wilson with two punches earlier that night and how a camera, attached to one of the doormen, had captured several violent clashes that night.

But Judge Fox said the camera was deliberately switched off before the final attack and the doorman who wore it later received threatening phone calls before giving evidence in court.

Judge Fox said the charge was originally murder, agreeing it was “at least debatable”, and said there were aggravating features that led him to impose a seven-year sentence.

“The punch was in fact, in old fashioned terms, a haymaker which lifted (Mr Wilson) off his feet. Having delivered one heavy blow, you calmly walked away,” said Judge Fox.

“There was the blood being washed away from the concrete and no question of the police being called in.”

Judge Fox said he accepted Rowell was not responsible for the threatening phone calls made to the doorman or switching off the camera but said he was a willing instrument in “sorting out” trouble at his parents’ pub.

At an earlier hearing, Amanda Rippon, prosecuting, described the events leading up to 1.20am, when Mr Wilson was fatally injured.

Trouble flared between two other men; Mr Wilson’s nephew and boss, Paul Barker and Dean Whitworth, in the wake of a football match between their two teams.

Hours earlier, Mr Barker’s side, the Cumberland Arms, from Bishop Auckland, had beaten Mr Whitworth’s club, The Station, from nearby West Auckland, 7-2. Groups of friends from each team went out after the game and ended up at The Beehive towards the end of the night.

Miss Ripon said Mr Barker and Mr Whitworth were ejected by door staff after a fight broke out, but the trouble spilled into the car park and others joined in.

The melee involved Mr Rowell punching Mr Wilson to the ground, and being “hell bent” on getting to Mr Barker while others tried to intervene, said Miss Ripon.

A doorman tried to drag Mr Rowell away, but he again landed a blow, which felled Mr Wilson.

The trouble appeared to end when Mr Rowell was restrained and went back inside the pub, but Miss Ripon said he swore and “stamped away”

after shoving the doorman.

Moments later, as Mr Wilson stood outside the front of the pub “minding his own business”, Mr Rowell punched him to the ground a third and final time.

Neil Davey QC, mitigating, said Rowell had first become agitated because the football fans had disturbed a family gathering at the pub.

He described Rowell as a family man who had matured since his early 20s, when he was last in court for a minor offence.

Mr Davey said Rowell was simply trying to resolve a dispute in his parents’ pub.

People who knew both families were reluctant to talk about the case yesterday. One neighbour said: “It has caused a lot of ill feeling in Bishop, especially seeing as both the families have pubs.

“Nobody wants to get involved.”