Man jailed for killing amateur footballer with single punch

A man who killed a popular amateur footballer with a single punch has been jailed for seven years.

Leon Beagan, 29, was convicted of culpable homicide after hitting Andrew Lees, 27, outside Renfrew Leisure Centre on 5 November 2023.

Lees, who was known to his friends as Panda, died in hospital after a fatal rupture of an artery in his neck caused bleeding around the brain.

Sentencing Beagan at the High Court in Glasgow, Judge Douglas Brown said the death was "a tragedy" which had left Lees' grieving mother "completely shattered".

The victim - described as a "big friendly giant with a heart of gold" - played for local team Glynhill Moorcroft AFC.

He had been at a game before going to Davidson's Bar with a friend.

The other man left around 23:30 but Lees stayed and ended up in the company of the killer's half-sister, Skye Beagan.

She and Lees were later in Renfrew town centre before they met Beagan in the car park of the sports centre, where CCTV footage captured the men appearing to confront one another.

In his closing speech to jurors, prosecutor William Frain-Bell said: "It is not clear as to what the problem was between Skye Beagan, Andrew Lees and Leon Beagan.

"Things seemed to have kicked off when they came across each other."

The court heard Beagan landed an unexpected blow on Lees' head, causing him to ask: "What did you do that for?"

Lees soon collapsed to the ground. Beagan walked off before others called for help.

Beagan was said to have shown a "callous disregard" for what he had done to the man.

Paramedics treated him at the scene before he was taken to hospital, but never recovered.

Judge Brown said Lees was "plainly popular and much loved by many who knew him".

"The greatest impact will be on those close to him, in particular his mother Angela Lees," he said.

"He was her only child. He was loving, kind and protective.

"When he was killed her life was completely shattered. She will never recover from her devastating loss."