Financial worker faces jail for killing friend with a single punch

Facing jail: Alexander Thomson
Central News
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A financial worker who killed his friend with a single punch to the head after his shoe was thrown out of a taxi window is facing jail.

Alexander Thomson, 32, lashed out at 23-year-old Thomas Hulme following a evening socialising with friends on August 26 last year.

The taxi driver stopped but when Mr Hulme got out of the car in Farringdon Street, close to Ludgate Circus, he collapsed on the pavement.

Recruitment consultant Mr Hulme, from Tooting, south London, was rushed to hospital but died the following evening.

At a previous hearing, Judge Wendy Joseph QC told the Old Bailey Thomson had lost his job as a business development manager shortly before the attack, and had gone out that evening with former colleagues.

Victim: 23-year-old Thomas Hulme 
City of London Police

“On the way home, one of the other young men threw the defendant’s shoe out of the window of the taxi, in response to which this defendant punched him in the head,” she said.

“Shortly afterwards the young man collapsed and died.”

Thomson, who had been employed in the financial sector in Notting Hill, appeared in the dock this morning to plead guilty to manslaughter, his voice wavering as he said the word “guilty”.

Judge Anthony Bate freed a tearful Thomson on conditional bail until sentencing on March 10, but said he should be “under no illusion” that he will be spared jail at that hearing.

Lisa Wilding QC, defending, asked for the adjournment so that Thomson could be medically assessed before he is sentenced, and said he has quit alcohol since the night of the attack.

“The court should know why it is that matters escalated to the level it did that night, with wholly unexpected and tragic consequences,” she said.

She added that Thomson knows he is going to prison when he is finally sentenced.

Members of Mr Hulme’s family were in the courtroom to hear the guilty plea being entered.

Following his death, Mr Hulme’s sister Lucy paid tribute on Facebook, writing: “Rest in peace to my beautiful big brother. Love you so so much forever.”

She broke down in tears as Thomson entered his guilty plea.

Thomson, of Clapham, pleaded guilty to one count of manslaughter.

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