Eight years for bar thug who killed primary school teacher with a single punch

Blue Horrobin, 23, of Highfield Road, Askern, near Doncaster, was yesterday given an eight-year custodial sentence with another three years to serve on licence after he was found guilty of manslaughter.

Lewis Siddall, 24, died after he was punched by Horrobin at the VDKA bar in Doncaster town centre in 2015.

Sentencing Horrobin yesterday, Justice Holgate said: “You are a 6ft 3ins man who is broad, muscular and strong. Lewis Siddall was only 5ft 6ins, but physically fit due to his work as a PE teacher.

“In cross-examination you suggested Lewis Siddall came towards you with his fist raised. You said you feared being attacked by him and his friends. The jury did not accept this, and neither do I. Your account was a fabrication.

“I am sure Lewis Siddall did nothing whatsoever to make you think he was being aggressive or was likely to attack you. It was a completely unprovoked assault. He didn’t retaliate, and couldn’t have. He was a popular, caring and selfless.”

Horrobin, who was found guilty last month of manslaughter, was given the three-year extension to his sentence after Justice Holgate deemed he posed a “high risk of serious harm” to the public after the attack on Mr Siddall.

The extension was also imposed due to Horrobin’s previous convictions, including an assault in which the former bookmaker fractured a man’s cheek bone in three places during a previous unprovoked attack in 2010. He was aged just 17 at the time.

The court heard a moving victim impact statement submitted by Mr Siddall’s mother, Lynne Siddall, in which she said her family was struggling to cope with the loss of their “blue-eyed boy”.

The attack took place in the bar in Doncaster while Mr Siddall was out with a group of friends from work on August 13, 2015.

The teacher at Copley Junior School, Sprotborough, Doncaster, was found dead in his bed by his mother at about 5am the following morning.