A man killed his friend after knocking him out with one punch at the victim’s home. Jamie Garwood, 34, whose punch caused Richard Thompson, 42, to hit his head on his uncarpeted floor was sentenced at Cardiff Crown Court today. While Thompson was down, those around him put cigarette butts in his nose before an ambulance was called.

Everyone in the house, including the victim and defendant had been taking drugs at the time of the incident.

The court heard that Thompson and his partner Jenny Chard’s house in Tewkesbury Walk in Newport was being “cuckooed”.

This is when the property of a vulnerable person, such as Thompson who was addicted to class A drugs, is taken over by drug dealers and used as a base of operations.

Garwood wasn’t involved with this but knew Thompson was addicted and vulnerable, reported Wales Online.

Prosecutor John Hipkin KC described in detail how the tragic incident unfolded. It started when one of the men in his house, Carlos Ross, started “bullying” Thompson by throwing small items at him.

In response, Thompson told him to stop and retaliated by throwing a small tin or pencil case which struck Garwood on the head, creating a small lump.

Mr Hipkin said: “The defendant then in short threw a left handed punch which struck Mr Thompson on the chin. Mr Thompson fell to the ground and his head struck an uncarpeted surface. The defendant’s partner Vicky Moody described the sound as ‘sickening’.

“Mr Thompson was unconscious for a number of minutes, he regained consciousness at one stage but his condition deteriorated and he couldn’t be raised. Jenny Chard telephoned an ambulance two hours after the blow I described. During that time Ms Chard saw individuals put cigarette butts in Mr Thompson’s nose as he lay unconscious on the sofa.”

Mr Thompson was taken to the Univerity Hospital of Wales in Cardiff but never regained consciousness and died on September 6, 2022.

Three days after Mr Thompson’s death, Garwood and his partner Ms Moody went to stay with a friend and told him Mr Thompson had been “paralytic drunk”.

Garwood, of Lincoln Court, Caerleon, said he “needed to think about what to do” but was arrested later the same day by police. He gave a no-comment interview.

He pleaded guilty to manslaughter on December 15 last year.

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A post mortem showed Mr Thompson suffered skull fractures to both sides of his head and subdural and subarachnoid haemorrhage, understood to have been caused by a blunt force moving head injury.

According to Mr Hipkin, Garwood had a long record of 34 previous convictions. His previous offences include common assault, robbery, affray, battery section 20 wounding, domestic assault, assaulting a police officer violent disorder, attacking a cell mate while in prison and burglary.

He was subject to post-sentence supervision at the time of Thompson’s death.

The defendants lawyer, Davie Elias KC said during mitigation there was clearly a lack of pre-meditation during the incident.

He said Garwood’s actions amounted to a “reaction”.

Mr Elias added that his client “bitterly regretted” what he did and that it would “live with him for the rest of his life”.

Sentencing, the Recorder of Cardiff Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke said: “Your reaction to being accidentally struck by an object thrown by Mr Thompson was to use violence without any thought of the consequences, which you have often done in the past. This time the consequence was Mr Thompson tragically losing his life.”

Garwood was sentenced to six years imprisonment, with an extended licence period of four years. He will at least two thirds of the custodial period before he will be considered for release.

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