Student jailed for one punch that killed man
said the family had agreed to the release by police of distressing footage CCTV to highlight the deadly dangers of single punches.
In the footage Keith Maden, 59, who was only just starting to rebuild his life after suffering a stroke, is knocked backwards without warning by what a jury heard described as a ‘forceful, swinging punch’.
John said the footage should ‘absolutely be out there’ and also criticised the four-and-a-half year sentence handed to the man who delivered the killer blow, Jafar Ali.
In the footage, Mr Maden walks towards a group of youths stood outside Dixy Chicken on Reed Hill in Rochdale town centre.
He appears to finish a cigarette and extinguish it under his shoe before police said a ‘verbal disagreement’ started between them outside on the doorstep.
Suddenly, Ali is shown delivering a single punch.
Mr Maden, who had just become a grandfather, is knocked backwards and is shown lying prone across a kerb as the group disperse.
His brother, John, told the Observer: “I think that it [the CCTV footage] should be released so people can see what has happened. The footage should absolutely be out there. I think that the sentence is absolutely disgraceful. The system stinks.”
Outside court senior investigating officer Duncan Thorpe, of GMP’s Major Incident Support Unit, said: “In just a few seconds, Ali took a complete stranger away from the people who loved him the most.
“(Keith) Maden had no idea when he left the hotel to get some food that he was taking his last steps, thanks to Ali’s violent actions.”
Mr Maden, a popular figure in the pubs around Rochdale and Littleborough, never regained consciousness and died of catastrophic head injuries following the incident outside Dixy Chicken in Rochdale town centre on September 28, last year.
Mr Maden was said to have been angry either because Ali and his friends were blocking the entrance to the takeaway or because he had seen youths throwing fireworks.
Ali, now 20, of Church Stile, Rochdale, would go on to claim 5ft 4ins Keith had threatened to headbutt him and aimed a racial insult at him, insisting he acted in selfdefence.
A jury disagreed and convicted Ali of one count of manslaughter earlier this month. He was jailed for four-and-ahalf years at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court.
Mr Maden, who had been living with his mum in Littleborough and had just become a grandfather, had consumed a pint and a half of lager at The Reed Hotel before going out to smoke a cigarette with friends.
The court heard ‘words were exchanged’ between Mr Maden’s group and youths who were throwing bangers, although Ali was not one of them.
Judge Potter said: “I accept Mr Maden’s behaviour was aggressive and offensive.
“However, what followed was an unlawful act by you which was to have fatal consequences.
“You lost your temper and unnecessarily took a deliberate step forwards to administer a single punch with your right fist to the left-hand-side of Mr Maden’s head.”
Judge Potter said the act had been ‘an uncharacteristic momentary resort in temper to an act of violence which has brought tragedy to many people’. The death had devastated the Maden family but also the ‘hardworking’ Ali family, said the judge.