Man guilty over fatal punch after Euro 2024 match

A scaffolder who punched a man after watching a Euro 2024 England football match at a sports club has been found guilty of manslaughter.

Oscar Jackson, 21, from Wilshere Crescent, Hitchin, Hertfordshire, hit security engineer Grant Wallendorf, 45, in the face after they had both watched England v Serbia on television at the club in Ickleford on 16 June.

Mr Wallendorf, who also lived in Hitchin, suffered a brain injury after an artery ruptured, and he died in Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge.

Jackson was found guilty of manslaughter but cleared of murder on Wednesday after a crown court trial in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire.

Judge David Farrell released Jackson on bail, pending sentencing on 10 January.

"You have been convicted of manslaughter. It's a serious matter," the judge said.

Jackson had denied charges of both murder and manslaughter and told police he hit out in self-defence and did not intend to "harm or kill".

Jurors heard how the incident involving the two men, who had both been drinking, was caught on the CCTV system that Mr Wallendorf had installed at the club.

Footage showed Mr Wallendorf gesticulating towards Mr Jackson in the club's car park after the game, before the punch was thrown.

Jackson told police the victim had called him "disgusting" after he went to urinate in bushes.

He said he believed he was about to be assaulted and had made a "pre-emptive strike".

Prosecuting barrister Simon Wilshire told the court that the question was whether Jackson had hit out in anger or in fear of an "imminent attack".

He argued that Jackson had thrown a "haymaker of a punch" in anger.

Tana Adkin KC, who represented Jackson, told jurors that what happened was an accident and was "pure self-defence".

She said Jackson was not the aggressor and had not thrown a "haymaker".

Det Ch Insp Nick Gardner, from the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit, said: "A snap decision from Jackson has led to catastrophic repercussions for the victim and his family, who I send my condolences to at what remains a very emotional time."

The Crown Prosecution Service guidelines say, that subject to some exceptions, the crime of murder is committed where a person of sound mind and discretion unlawfully kills with intent to kill or cause grievous bodily harm.

The act must be a substantial cause of the death, not necessarily the sole or principal cause.

Manslaughter is primarily committed in one of three ways:

• Killing with the intent for murder but where a partial defence applies, namely loss of control, diminished responsibility or killing pursuant to a suicide pact.

• Conduct that was grossly negligent given the risk of death, and did kill (gross negligence manslaughter)

• Conduct taking the form of an unlawful act involving a danger of some harm that resulted in death (unlawful and dangerous act manslaughter)

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