A 24-year old man was sentenced to three years imprisonment yesterday after he pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

“No matter what I say right now, it can't bring him back,” Kofi Omar Dill, 24, told the court and Puisne Judge Charles-Etta Simmons. “I'm just sorry.”

Dill was in the parking lot of the Seventh Day Adventist Church on Glebe Road in Pembroke on November 11, 2002 when he spotted a friend wearing a leather jacket.

A dispute began over the jacket, which Dill claimed was his. As a result, Dill approached the victim, Frederick John Goring, who was not involved in the dispute.

Dill was heard to order Goring to give him money for the jacket. Goring, hands in pockets, replied: “I'm not about all that,” at which point Dill slapped him across the face.

Mr. Goring, who was unable to defend himself as his hands were still in his pockets, fell backwards to the ground.

“When he hit the ground the impact made an audible noise, and was such that his dentures were loosened from his mouth,” senior Crown counsel Lloyd Rayney told the court.

Bystanders attempted to resuscitate the man, however he remained unresponsive. He was taken by ambulance to the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, where he remained in a vegetative state on life support for two days.

On Thursday, November 14, 2002 he was pronounced dead due to brain damage.

Dill, initially denying the incident, was arrested on November 13. On November 15 he made a written statement to Police in which he admitted the incident.

“Our family feels as if it has been cheated,” wrote Mr. Goring's sister, who lives in Quebec, in a victim impact statement.

“It did not allow us to say our final goodbye... We were facing something almost too horrendous to cope with.”

The decision to turn off the life support, she said, was a decision “no-one should have to make... The sense of guilt remains with you forever.

“His nature included no violence,” she continued. “He was our living link with Bermuda - we thought he was safe.”

Mr. Rayney, telling the court Dill was “trying to play the part of a big man”, said the facts spoke for themselves.

“When he (Goring) told the offender he had nothing to do with (the jacket), he retaliated with a hard slap across the face,” he said. “The Crown is not suggesting he intended death - if so the charge would be murder,” he said. However, in light of conflicting statements which Dill made to Police, Mr. Rayney said he deserved “no credit for realising the unfortunate consequences and seeking to remedy the situation.”

However, Dill's counsel Mark Pettingill told Ms Simmons: “This is a young man who is deeply and profoundly remorseful for the death of someone he would've called a friend.”

Saying the incident amounted to nothing more than “common assault,” Mr. Pettingill added: “Tragically and accidentally the element of death intercedes.

“There is more tragedy involved in this case than any type of mens rea,” he said. “He looks back on it with disbelief at what occurred.”

“There's more tragedy here than wilfulness,” agreed Ms Simmons. “But nonetheless a family is suffering.”

Dill had a history of assault which, Ms Simmons observed, should “on the face of it” have acted as a wake-up call to him earlier. “But clearly it did not.”

Were it not for his previous convictions, she said, she would have agreed with Mr. Pettingill's assertion that the crime warranted about nine months in jail.

Instead, she ordered Dill to serve three years in jail, where he will undergo anger management courses, a programme for violent offenders, and a programme for conflict resolution and unresolved emotional issues.

On his re-entry into the community he will serve one year probation, she said, during which time he will do 500 hours of community service. “This is not a case where you can pay back the Goring family, or where a fine would solve the matter,” she said. “(Community service) is the least you can do to try to make reparations.”

As part of his probation, Dill was also ordered to “refrain from loitering”.

“I think that will do you good,” said Ms Simmons. “The devil finds work for idle hands... It's really all in your hands, Mr. Dill.”