Man kills fellow pub-goer with single punch after row over game of pool

Judge warns 'one punch can kill' after Jason Haig struck in face, before falling backwards and hitting his head on floor

A man has been sent to jail for killing a man with a single punch after an argument broke out during a game of pool.

Thomas Allan, from Glasgow, has been sentenced to over five years in prison for the deadly assault in a Scottish pub.

He punched Jason Haig in the face, who then fell backwards and hit his head on the floor.

Mr Haig suffered injuries including a fractured skull and bleeding on the brain after he was attacked at a pub in Rutherglen, a town in the Glasgow area, on 2 September last year.

He died over a week later in hospital from severe brain damage.

Allan pleaded guilty to a charge of culpable homicide at the High Court in Glasgow in December.

He has been sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh to five years and four months behind bars, the Crown Office said.

The two men had been playing pool together for about 20 minutes in a South Lanarkshire pub when a row appeared to erupt, the prosecution service said.

Allan got closer to Mr Haig and spoke to him for a few seconds while holding his pool cue in his right hand.

He then struck Mr Haig with his left hand, causing the victim to fall backwards.

“A single punch has had catastrophic consequences,” David Green, procurator fiscal for homicide and major crime, said.

“This type of attack is just as lethal as an assault with a weapon and any instance of a punch to the head can have the kind of ramifications that we have tragically seen with this case.”

He said the “unintended consequences” of the assault should warn people that “one punch can kill”.

Press Association contributed to this report