THE family of a peace-loving grandfather, whose killer was jailed for just three years, have criticised the sentence as "atrocious".

Russell Frederick Snowdon, 26, was jailed for two years for manslaughter and ordered to serve 12 months outstanding from a previous prison sentence, at Newcastle Crown Court, on Monday.

The charge was reduced from murder after he denied intending to kill Terry Raisbeck, 53, when he felled him with one blow as he stood at a bus stop outside Ushaw Moor Workingmen's Club, near Durham.

Mr Raisbeck, a married father-of-three and grandfather, who suffered heart problems, died the following morning from catastrophic brain damage.

Mr Raisbeck's daughter, Lyn Fiby, 35, of Pringle Place, New Brancepeth, said the sentence had devastated the family.

"It's atrocious," she said. "We are just shocked and gutted.

"Two years for someone's life seems nothing. We were just starting to get our lives back together, and it has knocked us back as far as ever."

Mr Raisbeck's widow Sheila, 55, of Croft Rigg, Brandon, said the day of the tragedy, Easter Bank Holiday Monday this year, would have been her mother's 79th birthday, but she had died three weeks before.

In her memory, she and Mr Raisbeck went out with another couple to Ushaw Moor Workingmen's Club, planning to meet other family members later in New Brancepeth.

The foursome spent several hours enjoying a karaoke session in the club, then left to catch a bus.

While they were waiting, a fight had broken out in the club toilets.

Mrs Raisbeck said the next thing they knew a car stopped suddenly and three men got out.

"The man just hit Terry. There wasn't a word said. We didn't know there was any trouble going on. We just stood, gobsmacked."

The fight inside the club involved between 50 and 60 people, and police described the scene as "pandemonium."

It later emerged that Snowdon was involved in a feud and mistook Mr Raisbeck for someone fighting on their side in the brawl.

Mrs Raisbeck said she could not understand the error. "Even if he did think he was one of the gang, it doesn't give him the right to kill someone," she said.

Mrs Fiby said after hearing of Snowdon's previous convictions, including two for violence, the family were sure he would receive a substantial sentence. "We had seven or eight years in our minds," she said. "Instead, he's going to be out walking the streets in a few months.

"My dad was a happy go-lucky man who had never been in trouble in his life and loved his grandchildren. He didn't deserve to die."

The family plans to appeal against the sentence.