A KILLER jailed for manslaughter after punching a student to the ground has been released after serving 11 months of a two-and-a-half year sentence.

Lloyd Smith was imprisoned after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of 22-year-old Lee Walker in Darlington town centre.

Smith had felled Lee with a single punch outside the Bar Size pub, in Skinnergate, in March last year. But yesterday he was released from Stockton's Holme House prison.

Lee's parents, Neil and Diane, had unsuccessfully appealed against the sentence for being unduly lenient.

Mrs Walker said: "It was such a shock when we were told he had been released. We knew he was due out in July or August, but we didn't expect it would be on July 1.

"It was just last year and that is what hurts, because it is so fresh in your mind and so raw."

She said Smith's barrister had said at last year's Crown Court hearing that Smith would not be returning to Darlington after his release and would try to make a new life elsewhere.

But the Walkers have been told by probation officers that Smith has come back to live in the town, with restrictions on where he can go, after a hostel place could not be found for him elsewhere in the region.

Smith, originally of Corporation Road, Darlington, spent three months on remand before his case came to court. In November, he was jailed for three-month for assaulting a taxi driver four months before he punched Lee. The jail term ran concurrent to his manslaughter sentence.