Son who killed his father in beer garden on Christmas Eve shortly after meeting him for the first time jailed for six years

A man who killed his biological father on Christmas Eve just hours after discovering that he was his son has been jailed for six years.

Martin Greensmith, 37, had never met his father until a chance encounter during a Christmas drinks party.

While at the festive evening at the Queen’s Head pub in Willington, County Durham, Greensmith’s mother pointed out Steven Shevels, 61, and revealed that he was in fact his father.

Greensmith, of Crook, County Durham, did not want to talk to Mr Shevels and even told him: ‘You’re my dad but I don’t want to know you,’ a trial at Teesside Crown Court heard last month. 

They had a number of exchanges and Greensmith eventually went outside to get away from his father, who followed him when he was asked to leave the pub because he was drunk.

Another argument ensued prompting Greensmith to deliver a ‘powerful and aggressive push’ to Mr Shevels’ upper body, causing him to immediately fall and hit his head on the concrete floor.

CCTV footage showed the push and Mr Shevels falling backwards. 

One witness described the sound as ‘like dropping a coconut on concrete.’

Greensmith and others tried to resuscitate Mr Shevels and when emergency services arrived they worked on him for more than an hour before pronouncing him dead at the scene.

Greensmith told his trial that he had only used a ‘gentle push’ in ‘self-defence’ but this was rejected by jurors and he was convicted of manslaughter.

At Newcastle Crown Court on Friday he was jailed. 

Judge Jonathan Carroll said Greensmith had been ‘immediately angry and aggressive.’

‘You were with your family on what should have been a convivial Christmas drink, sadly that was not to be,’ he said.

‘Mr Shevels entered the pub and it is clear he had been drinking earlier and was under the influence, there were minor exchanges before he came to sit near your party.

‘You were told by your mother that Mr Shevels was your father, you did not know this before.

‘He said something that you objected to and having viewed CCTV footage I am satisfied so I am sure that you were immediately angry and aggressive, your face, body language and hand signals make that clear.’

Greensmith told his trial that he ‘didn’t want to know his father’, adding: ‘In 36 years he's never made an attempt to do anything.’

Paul Rooney, defending, said he was ‘genuinely remorseful’, while a pre-sentence report found that Greensmith may have felt ‘overwhelmed’ by the discovery that Mr Shevels was his father.

In a victim impact statement read in court, Mr Shevels’ daughter Chloe Shevels said her father was ‘a quiet and timid man’ who loved nature and rock music.

She said: ‘He died on Christmas Eve. I found out through gossip from other people when I was opening presents.

‘I now dread the thought of Christmas.’

Mr Shevels’ sister Angela Thompson said he was ‘the victim of an unprovoked and selfish act of violence, which took his life and took him from us far too soon’.

‘It’s bad enough this happened, but for it to have happened on Christmas Eve makes it a lot worse,’ she added.