A man who killed his ‘dad’ when he pushed him over in a pub beer garden just hours after learning he was his father on Christmas Eve is due to be sentenced today.
Martin Greensmith was convicted of manslaughter following a trial at Teesside Crown Court last month.
The 37-year-old accepted that his actions caused Steven Shevels’ death but maintained he was acting in self-defence.
Jurors heard that Greensmith reacted angrily when learning that Mr Shevels was his father after he turned up at the Queen’s Head in Willington.
The fatal push came after 61-year-old Mr Shevels was asked to leave the pub for becoming a nuisance to the Greensmith family.
Moments later, Greensmith pushed his father to the ground in the beer garden, claiming he had tried to block his way back into the pub.
CCTV captured several exchanges between Mr Shevels and the defendant’s mother, Angela Greensmith, before Greensmith barged into him at the bar.
Greensmith then made an indecent hand gesture at Mr Shevels before his mother and uncle intervened to move him away.
Police outside the Queen's Head in Willington on Christmas day
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Later that day, cameras captured the defendant pushing Mr Shevels to the ground in the pub’s beer garden, where the 61-year-old cracked his head on the concrete.
Greensmith, of Rockingham Road, Sunnybrow, Willington, denied manslaughter but was convicted by a 10-2 majority after almost six hours of deliberation.
Pathologist Jennifer Bolton told the court that Mr Shevels suffered a cardiac arrest while unconscious and that his death was caused by the fall, rather than an underlying heart condition.
Greensmith will be sentenced this afternoon at Newcastle Crown Court.