BUSINESSMAN David Bulleid has been jailed for eight years by a judge at Maidstone Crown Court for battering to death a blackmailing rent boy.

The 59-year-old married father had claimed during his trial that he attacked James Siddall in self-defence after he refused to hand over £2,000.

Siddall lunged at him, he said, and then picked up a mandril, a conical object used for making jewellery, and swung it at him.

Bulleid claimed it was then that he picked up a hammer and fought back. He described how he hit Siddall until he stopped moving.

Bulleid denied murder and was cleared by the jury after almost eight hours deliberation. However, he was convicted of manslaughter.

Jailing him Judge Andrew Patience QC said he accepted “unreservedly” that Bulleid killed Siddall because he had “suddenly and temporarily” lost his self-control as a result of the pressure he was under.

But Judge Patience said there had to be a substantial period of imprisonment to reflect the verdict and the gravity of the offence.

He added that whatever the sentence it could not place a value on the life of victim.

During his trial the prosecution alleged that Bulleid, who rents out quad bikes at Bluewater shopping centre, killed “unpleasant” Siddall because his double life was about to be exposed.

Bulleid was said to have lured the 21-year-old to his home in Royal Esplanade, Westbrook, near Margate, and silenced him by smashing his skull.

John Hillen, prosecuting, said it was a pre-meditated murder, but the plan went wrong and Bulleid had to resort to pretending he was the victim and acting in self-defence.

Bulleid, however, said in evidence that Siddall had demanded £5,000 from him the day before their final fatal meeting on February 13.

Siddall had already received more than £2,000 in hush money in a desperate attempt to keep his homosexual tendencies of 45 years secret from his second wife Sue.

After the verdicts Michael Borrelli QC, defending, spoke of the pressure Bulleid was under at the time.

“It is difficult to envisage what must have been going through Mr Bulleid’s mind, a man who had bottled up a secret he had harboured for so long, to be confronted by a persistent and deliberate blackmailer of vulnerable men.”

Mr Borrelli said Siddall was known to select married men as they were unlikely to go to the authorities.

He continued that the verdict eliminated any premeditation and allowed Judge Patience to consider the degree of provocation from Siddall.

And with reference to the number of injuries inflicted on Siddall, Mr Borrelli argued that Bulleid should not be “over-harshly penalised”.

“It was a loss of control that sadly led to so much brutality being exercised,” he said.

Bulleid claimed the blackmail started after Siddall caught him with another man in a public toilet in Westgate on January 31.

After more cash demands, Bulleid said he started to consider his options. He insisted they did not include killing his tormentor.

On February 13, he was working by his garage when Siddall arrived.

“He said he wanted money,” claimed Bulleid. “He said he wanted £5,000. I said I didn’t have £5,000 and if I had I wouldn’t give it to him now.

“It got very heated. I foolishly got out some money I had in my map pocket and waved it at him. He grabbed the money. He began to count it.

“I snatched it back. I put it back in my pocket. He lunged at me. I could see he was angry so I looked around for something to pick up - something to fend him off. I was looking for the shovel.”

Siddall got hold of the mandril and swung it at him. “He was very aggressive,” he said. “I picked up the hammer I had bought that morning. I wanted something to defend myself.

“I was very frightened. I said: Look, this is stupid, we’re going to get hurt. Let’s get the police’. He wasn’t saying anything. He put the mandril on the grass. For a second I thought he had agreed about going to the police. Then he dived at me and got his hands around the hammer.”

They struggled and both were bleeding from face or head wounds.

“I grabbed his jaw,” he said. “He let go of the hammer and I had the hammer. I wanted to assert authority and persuade him to come in and call the police.” Siddall attacked him with a spatula, he said, and the fight got serious. “We were like two boxers slugging it out,” said Bulleid.

“I hit him very hard. He fell on the ground and remained still. I thought he was unconscious. I felt relieved that I had survived and felt I must get the police.”

He went indoors to telephone. “The hammer was all bloody,” he said. “I sort of lost the plot. I thought I had to hide the hammer.”

He hid it in the bathroom and called 999. Siddall, meanwhile, seemed to be regaining consciousness. Bulleid said, he told the police: “He’s coming at me again. Quick, he’s getting up.”

He continued: “I thought if he gets up with that mandril, I’m finished. I had to stop him. I dropped the phone and went for the mandril. If I hadn’t, I’d be in serious trouble.”

He used it to hit Siddall. “I hit him as hard as I could,” he said. “I don’t know how many times I hit him. He was kneeling. He didn’t go down again straight away. I hit him again. He went down then. I hit him till he stopped moving and I may have hit him one more time.”

He denied intending to kill Siddall, adding: “It was a case of him or me.”

Passing sentence Judge Patience said: “You should, of course, not taken the law into your own hands but sought help to rid yourself of the attentions of this persistent blackmailer.

“I understand the reasons why you decided not to take that course. As it was, when he came to your house, violence broke out and you ultimately inflicted a series of terrible injuries.

“I will not place too much emphasis upon that but it cannot be completely ignored.”

He added that he took Bulleid’s age into account, as well as all that had been said about him by many witnesses either in writing or in court.

Judge Patience also made an order that Bulleid pay £20,000 of his defence costs or the tax costs, whatever was the lesser amount.

The court had heard that Bulleid and his wife started some small businesses at Bluewater. Soon after it first opened he launched a project on one of the lakes, hiring out small radio-controlled boats. He then introduced radio-controlled cars, and more recently, with the help of a golfing professional, created a miniature pitch and putt course.

Bulleid said he also opened the quad bike hire business, which has about 30 family-sized machines made in Belgium, and was a consultant to a company in Dubai, specialising in furniture and woodwork.