Man jailed for four years for killing Boro fan
A Dutch man was today jailed for four years for stabbing one British football fan to death and seriously wounding another in a drunken brawl outside an Amsterdam bar.
Iwan Roy Vyent (aged 43) was convicted of manslaughter in the killing of Brendan O’Connor (aged 36) and attempted manslaughter for the attack on Howard Boville (aged 38) during a fight in Amsterdam’s red-light district in the early hours of November 25 last year.
The Britons had travelled to the Netherlands to watch Middlesbrough play AZ Alkmaar in a UEFA Cup game, but could not buy tickets and instead followed the match, which ended in a 0-0 draw, at the bar, prosecutors said.
After hours of drinking, the two Britons got into a fight with Vyent, a known drug dealer, in an alley near the bar, the prosecution said.
The court heard Vyent was beaten with a bottle, punched and kicked before he picked up a 25-centimetre kitchen knife that had fallen from his jacket and stabbed both men before fleeing in a taxi.
The court said today that Vyent had the right to defend himself, but not by stabbing at the two fans’ vital organs.
“For killing a person, and taking into account the importance of self-defence, there must be a long custodial sentence,” the court ruled.
“The accused has, through his acts, brought irreparable suffering to the relatives of O’Connor,” the judgment added. “Boville, who only just survived the stabbing, took months to recover from his injuries.”
Prosecutors had charged Vyent with murder and attempted murder and demanded a 15-year sentence.
Explaining their decision to clear him of murder and impose a much lighter sentence, the court’s judges wrote: “In the accused’s favour, the court considers that he was not the one who started the fight. The accused was attacked and beaten by O’Connor and Boville.”
The court said both fans were “under the influence of large amounts of alcohol. These circumstances clearly influenced the wrong decision of the accused to strike back in the manner he did.”
Fights in Amsterdam’s red-light district are not uncommon but are rarely fatal.
Last year, there were 24 killings in Amsterdam, a city of 750,000 people. Nearly half of the killings were blamed on disputes among rival criminal gangs.
