A YOUNG man who went berserk and killed his best friend with a freak punch has been jailed for four years by a judge at Maidstone Crown Court.

The victim, Roy Rossiter, suffered a fatal brain haemorrhage as a result of the single blow from out-of-control Kieran Barnes.

Barnes, 24, denied murder and his guilty plea to manslaughter was accepted by the prosecution.

The judge, Mrs Justice Rafferty, told him: "You were determinedly offensive even in the teeth of calm, irreproachable behaviour by Mr Rossiter who will never see his child grow up because of you.”

The court heard how Barnes had been drinking in Sheerness on December 22 last year and became increasingly violent and irrational.

Eleanor Laws, prosecuting, said he first rowed with his girlfriend Victoria Lawson and caused damage to their home in Berridge Road.

He returned later to find another friend, Mark Bater, helping to clear up the mess. Barnes entered the house by kicking in the door and punched Mr Bater twice to the face.

Barnes met up later with Mr Rossiter, 24, with whom he had become friends while they were both serving prison sentences.

Miss Laws said Barnes became more aggressive and attacked an Asian man in the street for no reason.

Barnes, Mr Rossiter, formerly from Faversham, Christian Letchford, Mr Bater and Christopher Faulkner were then together in a car. When they stopped because the radiator was leaking, Barnes beckoned over Nathan Garratt, 17, and punched him in the face.

They went on to a kebab shop in St George’s Avenue where Barnes tried to pay with a forged £10 note. It was refused and he picked up a charity box and threw it at a member of staff.

The five men returned to the car and went to Clyde Street. Barnes argued with Mr Bater and attacked him and tried to pull him out of the car through the boot.

”At this point Mr Rossiter got out and attempted to pacify the defendant,” said Miss Laws. “It is clear from all witnesses that he remained calm.

“When Mr Rossiter was attempting to prevent him from assaulting Mr Bater any more, he punched Mr Rossiter to the face, a blow delivered with force.

“The defendant is 6ft tall and muscular. Mr Rossiter was 5ft 8in. Mr Rossiter went down to the floor. The Crown’s case is that there was stamping to the head at that point.”

But Miss Laws said stamping did not play any part in Mr Rossiter’s death. It was the stress of the blow to the face that caused a ruptured aneurysm and haemorrhage. Mr Rossiter lost consciousness almost immediately.

Still, Barnes continued to rampage, trying to wrench off a door of the car. “Despite seeing the effect of the punch on his friend he ran a short distance, ripped off his shirt and shouted threats that he wanted to fight others,” said Miss Laws.

Efforts were made to give the victim first aid. He was taken to Medway Hospital where he died on Christmas Eve.

After the attack, Barnes went home to his girlfriend and before warning Mr Bater to keep quiet, fled to London. He told one witness: “I have hit someone and I think he’s dead.”

When Barnes was arrested in Catford on January 12 he said he felt guilty for killing his friend. Miss Laws said Barnes had a number of previous convictions. He was on licence at the time of the attack, having served an 11-month sentence for affray, common assault, criminal damage and indecent assault.

Tobias Long, defending, said Barnes recognised the wrong he had done to Mr Rossiter and his girlfriend Samantha Lee. They had two children, one born only five weeks before Mr Rossiter’s death.

Barnes had said: “Whatever sentence they give me will never be as bad as the guilt I feel for killing my best mate.”

The two men had become close after leaving prison and Barnes helped Mr Rossiter to get off heroin.

The judge told Barnes: “An escalation in your thuggish behaviour, which included both scattergun and direct violence and aggression, led inexorably to tragedy.

“When late in the chronicle of your foulness Mr Rossiter tried to mediate you struck him, felled him, and then you paraded your juvenile ego by ripping off a car door and mouthing petulant threats.

“I sentence you on the basis that the cause of death was a single blow. Custody, as you doubtless know, is inevitable,”