A teenager who killed a dad with one punch in a confrontation outside McDonald’s has been cleared of manslaughter.
A jury of seven women and five men took two hours and twenty minutes to unanimously find the 17-year-old not guilty.
Married dad-of-three Graham Bell’s head ‘hit the pavement with a loud crack’ after he was punched on October 1 and his life support was turned off in hospital three days later.
The defendant said he acted in defence of his then-15-year-old friend Patrick Sienkiewicz after Mr Bell, 37, punched him in the face.
Judge Guy Kearl QC said there would be ‘no winners’ no matter what the verdict was, adding: “Whichever way one looks at it, this is a tragic case.”
During a five-day trial at Leeds Crown Court, the jury watched CCTV footage of the incident, including the moment Mr Bell was punched.
Mr Bell, who was from Dalton, had been out drinking in Huddersfield town centre after Town's home game against Tottenham Hotspur.
Jonathan Sharpe, prosecuting, told the court that Patrick, who did not give evidence in the five-day trial, appeared to say something ‘provocative’ to Mr Bell outside McDonald’s.
“Once Mr Bell had punched [the defendant’s friend], that did not give anyone the right to retaliate,” Mr Sharpe said.
The defendant told the jury: “Nothing was said. Nothing actually happened for some big grown man to hit a kid.”
Eyewitnesses who were sitting in McDonald’s described seeing Patrick ‘laughing it off’, but the defendant said Patrick looked ‘dazed’ and as though he was about to start crying.
The defendant, who was with a group of five youths, said he thought Mr Bell would attack Patrick again, but then told the jury he thought the entire group was under threat.
Mr Sharpe said Mr Bell could be seen ‘retreating’ from the group on CCTV.
A key witness in the trial, Qasim Hussain, described the defendant’s reaction - which the prosecution said was ‘retaliation’ - as a ‘Superman’ and a ‘sucker’ punch.
The defendant, who said he ‘panicked’, went into McDonald’s to ‘probably get a cheeseburger’ and did not ring an ambulance. He and his friend Patrick initially ran from police when they arrived on the scene.
In interview, he told police: “He’s come up and punched someone so... I’ve punched him.
“I’ll probably mess up my whole life just ‘cos of some punch ‘cos someone wants to be drunk and punch someone. I didn’t mean to do it like that.”
Friends of Mr Bell, who was married with three children and better known by his nickname ‘Jeff’, previously told the Examiner that he was the ‘nicest guy anyone could meet’.
