A teenage thug has today been locked up for seven years for killing a father-of-two stabbed as he walked home in Gillingham in the early hours of New Year's Day.

Thomas Hodge - who can be named for the first time after an order banning identification was lifted at the request of the KM Group - was cleared of murdering David Young, but convicted of manslaughter yesterday.

The 17-year-old drug addict, wearing a suit and tie, stared straight ahead as a judge said he would serve about three years of the youth custody sentence before being released on licence.

Judge Jeremy Carey told him: "This was a killing that was caused by your hand, in which you held a blade and used it to deadly effect.

"By the jury's verdict, you are guilty of manslaughter. This case is a depressingly familiar one, a story of excessive drinking, group violence and carrying of a blade - a deadly combination leading to the needless loss of life, and a precious life."

But Mr Young's family slammed Hodge's sentence - and claimed they feel like they have been the ones on trial.

His mother Janice said: "We think he should have got life - a life for a life."

And father Chris Young said: "We haven't got justice. It seems like we have been on trial.

"I don't know how the law works, but maybe they need to look at the law again, because it's not right."

Mr Young's fiancee Kirsty Bryant - mother to his two young daughters - said: "It's a joke - a real let-down. He should have got a lot longer - at least 10 years.

"I'll miss him playing with the girls and looking after them. I'll miss him every day. The girls say they are busting for their dad back and they cry in the night.

"The last seven months have been completely empty without him. I am constantly crying."

Hodge, of Beatty Avenue, Gillingham, and Stuart Porter, of Buttermere Close, Gillingham, denied murdering Mr Young, 28, and wounding his friend John-Paul Smith with intent.

They also denied alternative charges of the manslaughter of Mr Young and unlawful wounding of Mr Smith.

The jury of nine men and three women was out for almost two days before unanimously convicting Hodge of manslaughter.

He and Porter, 18, were acquitted of all other charges.

Porter, who did not give evidence during the trial, was released from the cells having been in custody for seven months.

Maidstone Crown Court heard how Mr Young, his partner Kirsty Bryant, his brother Aaron, Mr Smith and another couple could not get a taxi in the early hours of January 1 after a night out in Rochester.

They started the long walk home to Gillingham and trouble flared when they met up with the two teenagers and their girlfriends in Windmill Road.

Miss Bryant became involved in a fight with the teenagers' girlfriends and the clash spiralled out of control.

It ended with the victim, of Beatty Avenue, Gillingham, being stabbed in the left thigh.

The father of daughters Aliyah and Latia was taken to nearby Medway Maritime Hospital, but the blade had severed an artery and he died four days later on January 5.

The prosecution alleged Hodge inflicted the fatal wound and Porter stabbed Mr Smith close to his heart.

There were many witnesses, but none of them saw a knife. Only one was recovered - a blade without a handle which Hodge claimed he used to cut up his cocaine.

Hodge admitted in evidence he must have caused Mr Young's death, but claimed he was acting in self-defence and trying to protect Porter who was getting "a kicking".

The judge said he not only had to give effect to the full force of the verdict, but also to interpret it.

The court had heard how Hodge was the aggressor and was also under attack from a bigger and older group.

"Large amounts of alcohol had been drunk by everyone," said Judge Carey. "You were the only one carrying a blade. You have lied about how you came to be in possession of it.

"You have lied about your accidental use and carrying of it."

Hodge claimed he obtained the knife from at drawer at his friend's Gillingham home, where he and Porter had been to a party on New Year's Eve.

The jury had suggested in a question during the trial that the youngster could have given evidence about the blade and asked why she had not been called as a witness.

"I judge that perhaps there was good reason that she did not," said the judge. "You carried that blade for the same reason that so many young men will carry blades, so that you are in a position to use like for like if necessary to do so.

"So I conclude you had a blade with you with the intention, if you needed to, to use it. Although you were only 17, I judge you to be physically well-built to look after yourself in a fight, as your actions in knocking an older man to the ground that night shows."

It led to retaliation from members of the other group, who armed themselves with pieces masonry.

"It was on any view an ugly scene at the top of Windmill Road and you and Stuart Porter were outnumbered. They got the better of Stuart Porter in what was a free-for-all. It was drunken brawling.

"By the time you went to the advancing group you had already your blade ready to use. In the melee that ensued you used a knife when you saw Stuart Porter was getting punched and kicked.

"By the jury's verdict, you were not acting in lawful self-defence. The jury quite rightly rejected your assertion that use of the knife was proportionate. It was not.

"You deliberately stabbed David Young and intended to cause him really serious harm. That is what knife blades do. You severed his artery and he bled to death.

"From the top of the road to the end you were a willing participant in the brawling. There was a substantial degree of provocation."

The judge added he did not find as a matter of law that Hodge was a serious risk of repeated offending.