Short Sentence in Tony Hoare Case

The killer of UK gay and lesbian research specialist Tony Hoare has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and been sentenced to two and a half years in jail, but is likely to be released after serving just half of this.

Hoare was punched just once by Leslie Kingshott as he walked his two Jack Russell dogs in a south London park last September, and died shortly after being taken to hospital (www.mrweb.com/drno/news7333.htm ).

Prior to the fatal attack, Hoare and Kingshott had been drinking in a local pub, where a dispute took place over the behaviour of the accused's dogs. Sentencing him, Judge Brian Barker described the occurrence as a tragic case for all concerned, and said that the incident over the dogs had been blown up out of all proportion.

Hoare's partner Robert Bowen belives that justice has not been done, and said the sentence should have been life. Hoare founded research consultancy Stormbreak ten years ago, to conduct both mainstream and gay issues research. He had recently published a report that claimed there was wide underreporting of homophobic crime in London.