Man gets three years for killing footballer's brother

A man has been jailed for three years for killing the half-brother of England and Tottenham Hotspur footballer Jermain Defoe.

Christopher Farley, 34, rode up on a BMX bicycle to confront Jade Defoe and start a row before knocking him unconscious with a single punch. Mr Defoe, a 26-year-old rapper who had three children, fractured his skull and suffered brain damage when his head hit the pavement.

Farley, of Leytonstone, east London, later admitted to police that he had a "bad temper". He was overheard by a prison officer during a telephone conversation saying: "I did it – just one of those things." Mr Defoe, who was known by his middle name, Gavin, died in hospital four days after the attack in April last year in Newham, east London.

His half-brother Jermain, who was five months younger, rushed to Gavin's bedside from a training session with Tottenham after learning that Gavin was unlikely to survive. Farley, who went on the run for a week before handing himself over to the police, was found guilty of manslaughter by an Old Bailey jury. Jailing him yesterday, Judge Stephen Kramer said: "The unintended consequence of what you did in anger by that single, powerful punch has had the result of depriving a family of a son, brother and father."