Jury clears dad of manslaughter

TONY SELLARS

A Chadderton man was cleared of manslaughter yesterday following the death of a father-to-be.

It took the jury of six men and six women at Manchester Crown Court less than two hours to find Ryan Hobin (20), of Glebe Street, not guilty of the manslaughter of Tony Sellars.

Mr Sellars died following an altercation with Mr Hobin after a computer games session with friends that turned sour.

During the three-day trial, the court heard that Mr Sellars (26) had been drinking throughout the evening with the group, and became angry when he was told to stop goading Mr Hobin.

Mr Sellars left the house of Martin Gibson, who was hosting the evening, on South Croft Street, Fitton Hill, saying he had better places to be.

Eye-witnesses said he had been drinking quicker than the rest of the group and began to slur his words.

As he left the property, he and Mr Hobin began exchanging words with each other which turned into a shouting match in the street .

Mr Sellars began to swing punches at Mr Hobin during the incident in the early hours of October 19 last year.

Mr Hobin, a father-of-one, admitted punching out at Mr Sellars during the argument. Mr Sellars fell to the ground and hit his head on the pavement, suffering a fractured skull and a brain injury. He died in hospital two days later.

But Mr Hobin always claimed he had acted in self-defence after Mr Sellars began swinging punches at him. He told the court that he was disappointed in himself and regretted everything that had happened. He said he had been more scared than angry.

Mr Hobin said that had Mr Sellars not swung at him, he would not have struck him. He said he didn’t know if his punches had made contact, but he did admit punching back “two or three times”.

Mr Hobin accepted that Mr Sellars had fallen to the ground, but said he didn’t know what had caused him to fall to the ground. He also accepted that he had kicked Mr Sellars when he was on the ground. Asked why, he replied, “Scared really — that he’d get back up.”

Mr Hobin also admitted that had lied to the ambulance service when he made the 999 call, telling them that a man was drunk and had fallen over and hit his head.

Asked why, Mr Hobin replied, “I was scared, never been in a situation like that before.”

Mr Hobin breathed a sigh of relief as the jury returned their verdict.

But there was anger from Mr Sellars’ family in the public gallery. One woman was arrested on suspicion for an alleged contempt of court after she shouted abuse at Mr Hobin as he left the dock.

However, Judge Andrew Gilbart, the Recorder of Manchester, accepted an apology from the woman and no further action was taken against her.