Father-of-one Tony Pepper died after receiving a "ferocious" punch from 23-year-old William East outside the Devonshire Arms pub in North Shore on January 27.

It happened after a televised derby match between Manchester United and Manchester City.

The 45-year-old slumped to the ground and cracked his head on the pavement causing devastating injuries to his brain.

East went on the run for three days while Mr Pepper fought for his life in Blackpool Victoria Hospital, but handed himself in after the victim lost his brave battle and a murder probe was launched.

Last month, East, of Onslow Road, Layton, admitted manslaughter and was sentenced to three years behind bars yesterday.

In a statement given to The Gazette, Mr Pepper's family said: "As a family we would like to say we are very disappointed with the length of sentence given to William East.

"As we said in the victim statements given to the judge we feel we have been given a life sentence.

"Throughout the hearing, representations were made about the remorse East felt for what he had done, but he appeared to be smirking while it was being said in court so we do not believe him to be genuine."

Mark Stuart, defending, told the court how East, who asked to be sent straight to prison to begin his sentence after admitting manslaughter last month, was extremely sorry for what he had done.

He told the judge: "Your lordship deals with cases such as this week in, week out in this court. The remorse level and empathy of this defendant is far above that which one often sees in such cases."

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