Family of Cambridgeshire man killed by single punch call for manslaughter law change

The family of a man killed by a single punch in an unprovoked attack outside a pub have called for a change in the law, after seeing his killer jailed for two years for manslaughter.

Ian Clitheroe, 50, died after being attacked by Jake McFarlane, 22, near the Samuel Pepys bar in Huntingdon in the early hours of 30 January.

McFarlane had thought he had seen Mr Clitheroe, of Huntingdon, arguing with a woman outside, and punched him to the ground. Despite the efforts of paramedics, Mr Clitheroe died at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge on 3 February.

Mr Clitheroe's family concede that MacFarlane did not mean to kill him, but feel the jail term is inadequately low, and are calling for it to be reviewed.

Mr Clitheroe's sister Lisa Jarmany said: "We should have felt - not happy as we knew it wasn't going to be a really lengthy sentence - but we should at least have felt a little bit of justice had been done.

"And we didn't feel that at all. So you feel like you can't move on."

McFarlane was sentenced at Peterborough Crown Court last week, after pleading guilty to manslaughter.

He was also sentenced to 21 months for drugs offences, which will run consecutively, meaning a total sentence of three years and nine months.

Mr Clitheroe's partner Claire Fulcher said she was finding the situation, including McFarlane's sentence, hard to deal with.

"Knowing that he's never going to walk through the door again, that I'm never going to see him again is really hard," she said.

"Because for someone who was so full of energy, so full of life, had so many plans, for that to just be taken away in an instant by one person's actions is really hard."

If sentences are deemed to be too lenient or too severe, the Court of Appeal can step in to look at them again.

According to the Sentencing Council, the charge of manslaughter can carry sentences ranging from a suspended jail term or community order through to a life sentence.