'Disappointment' at stab verdict

A drug dealer who stabbed a Middlesbrough football fan to death outside a bar in Amsterdam has been jailed for four years.

Dutch national Iwan Roy Vyent was convicted of the manslaughter of Brendan O'Connor by judges in Holland after they cleared him of murder.

Cleveland Police said Mr O'Connor's family were "bitterly disappointed" by the verdict and Dutch prosecutors immediately launched an appeal of the conviction and sentence. Prosecutors had demanded a 15-year prison sentence.

Vyent, 42, had denied the murder of Mr O'Connor, 36, and the attempted murder of his friend Howard Boville, 38, claiming he had acted in self-defence.

Mr O'Connor, who lived in London with his wife, and Mr Boville, from Stockton-on-Tees, Teesside, had travelled to Holland to watch Middlesbrough play a Uefa Cup match against AZ Alkmaar. The friends had been unable to get tickets for the match, which ended in a 0-0 draw, so instead watched the game from a bar in Amsterdam.

Hours after the match Mr O'Connor was stabbed to death outside Pinockio's Bar on November 25 last year. Prosecutors said a fight began after the two Britons approached Vyent in an alleyway to complain that he had sold them fake drugs. It culminated in Vyent suddenly pulling a knife and stabbing the two Britons.

Mr O'Connor, a self-employed materials controller, was originally from Teesside but moved to London 16 years ago, where he lived with his headteacher wife Tanya in Camden.

Mr Boville suffered serious damage to his pancreas. He only returned home in January after weeks in a Dutch hospital.

A Cleveland Police spokesman said: "The defendant has been found not guilty of the murder, but guilty of the manslaughter and jailed for four years.

"The family of Brendan O'Connor have been told of the court's verdict and are bitterly disappointed with both the verdict and the sentence. The Dutch prosecutor has immediately lodged an appeal against both the sentence and the verdict."