A WEIGHTLIFTER who killed a man by rupturing his bowel and stamping on him “like an insect” has been jailed for four-and-a-half years.

Jobless Jason Richardson, aged 32, repeatedly punched and kicked Roy Benefield during a brawl outside a Chislehurst pub.

Many Penny Farthing regulars were too frightened to speak to police at the time Richardson was cleared of murder after claiming he had not been in control of his actions because of a mental condition. An Old Bailey jury found him guilty of manslaughter.

Mr Benefield’s family were said to be angry but declined to comment after the sentence.

Richardson had intervened when the 49-year-old Mr Benefield was having an argument with another man in the Whitehorse Hill pub on August 19, last year.

The 6ft 3in unemployed builder kicked Mr Benefield between the legs and punched him to the ground.

One female witness, who asked not to be identified, said: “He seemed absolutely insane. He stamped on him three or four times. It was like stamping on an insect.” One of the blows to Mr Benefield’s abdomen ruptured a blood vessel in his bowel. He died later in Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup.

Richardson, of Beanshaw, Eltham, said he suffers from depression and panic attacks.