Jailed, sailor who killed man with one punch af ter losing at roulette
A SAILOR who killed a man with a single punch moments after losing £1,000 on a roulette table was yesterday jailed for five years.
Kallum Delaney, 20, attacked Robin Thomson after storming out of the Riverboat Casino in Glasgow city centre at 5am.
Mr Thomson, 27, hit his head when he fell and died in hospital.
Delaney – who was based at HM Naval Base Clyde at Faslane – claimed he thought Mr Thomson, of Perth, was going to hit him.
But following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow last month, a jury convicted Delaney of culpable homicide. Sentence was deferred for the court to obtain reports.
At the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday, Lord Glennie jailed him for five years.
The judge said there was no sentence available to him which could bring comfort to Mr Thomson’s family.
He told Delaney: ‘This has been a difficult case. It is a tragedy. You have been convicted of the culpable homicide of Robin Thomson, a total stranger to you who was simply making his way home following a night out.
‘It was your punch that killed him. It was a completely unjustified attack.’
At his trial, the court heard that Delaney helped maintain the Trident nuclear submarine fleet at Faslane.
It was told he and his Navy colleague Oliver James had gone to the Riverboat Casino in the early hours of September 23 last year.
Casino employee Karen Turner described Delaney as
Victim: Robin Thomson ‘agitated’ as he repeatedly lost money on the roulette table. She said: ‘He seemed upset. It seemed like he was in quite a bit of distress. I heard him s ay he l ost £1,000.’
CCTV footage played in court showed Delaney leav- ing the casino around 5am, seemingly in an angry mood.
Mr James said in evidence: ‘By not wanting to walk with me, I could tell he was annoyed with me.
‘He had said, “Why did you let me lose money?” The more he lost, the more bets he put on.’
The court heard Mr Thomson had also been at the
Killer: Kallum Delaney casino that night. He had sat at the same roulette table as Delaney but had not had anything to do with him.
CCTV footage showed Mr Thomson leaving the casino. He was walking in nearby Midland Street, where Delaney was waiting for a taxi back to Faslane. The sailor attacked him, leaving him for dead.
Mr Thomson was taken to Glasgow Royal Infirmary. He died two days later.
He had suffered a fracture to his neck, resulting in damage to the spinal cord. This starved his brain of oxygen and blood. Mr Thomson also had a broken nose.
Delaney was later arrested at Faslane and told his petty officer: ‘I have hit someone and I think it is bad. I did not know that I had it in me.”
In court yesterday, defence solicitor Murray Macara, QC, said his client had expressed ‘great remorse’ for what had happened to Mr Thomson.
He added: ‘Kallum Delaney is 20. He has no previous convictions and no adverse disciplinary record with the Royal Navy. He is expecting a custodial sentence and, as a consequence of this, he will be forced to leave the Royal Navy.’
Relatives and friends of Mr Thomson left the court in tears.
They have raised more than £120,000, which will be shared between brain injury charity Headway and the intensive care unit at Glasgow Royal Infirmary. Mr Thomson’s mother Pauline, 56, a personal assistant with drinks company Edrington, said: ‘As a family, we still feel utterly devastated by the loss of Robin and miss him every single day. This was a random and unprovoked attack as he made his way home.
‘ We should have been together today, celebrating his 28th birthday.
‘ We are grateful to the police, emergency services, hospital staff and friends and family for the unfailing support we have received since the tragedy.
‘We are proud of the way Robin lived his life and are choosing to try to focus on the positive aspects, as he would have wanted.
‘Typically, Robin signed up as an organ donor when he was just 13 – and last September five people benefited from organ transplants. We have been assured they are all doing well.’
‘Completely unjustified’