Boxer cleared of murdering victim with a single punch on night out

A keen boxer has been cleared of murdering a man with a single punch on a night out.Brandon Luke Sillence, 25, has admitted the manslaughter of Dean Harry Skillin, 20, after punching him outside The Waverley Hotel in Bangor in September 2020.

He also admitted assault causing actual bodily harm on Dean's cousin Taylor Lock.

Boxing enthusiast Sillence will be sentenced at Caernarfon Crown Court on Friday.After deliberating for just over five hours, a jury of six men and six women returned their majority verdict that Sillence was not guilty of murder.

The defendant, wearing a white sweatshirt and trousers in the glass-fronted dock, rubbed his face with his hand on hearing the verdict.

During the four-day trial, the court heard than a man called Adrian Roberts spoke to Taylor Lock about dogs, and then Sillence intervened by punching Mr Lock and Dean. But he only intended to "slap or jab" them as a warning to go away.

A pathologist said that the blow on or behind Dean’s right jaw led to his head rotating so violently that it caused a fracture to the top of his spine and bleeding on the brain. He was “brain dead” before he hit the ground.

Defence barrister Andrew O’Byrne QC urged the jury not to "rush to judgement".He said: “The sad fact is that the blow that Mr Sillence struck happened to land on a vulnerable area.“It’s just dreadful bad luck that that was the point of impact. If it had been elsewhere, it may have caused harm but it may not have caused the catastrophic brain bleed that led to this death.”

Mr O’Byrne also claimed that the prosecution’s argument about the importance of Sillence’s boxing background - and he had only ever fought one fight which he lost - was only “superficially attractive”.Today, the judge His Honour Geraint Walters said he would "reflect" on the case and pass sentence on manslaughter and assault causing ABH tomorrow.