This article is more than 4 months old

This article is more than 4 months old

A man who punched and killed a cyclist who he believed had damaged his car has been given a suspended jail term for manslaughter.

Nicolae Budurus punched 30-year-old Audrius Lapinskas after he came out of his house in Peterborough on 5 January and saw that the wing mirror of his Mercedes was hanging off, Cambridgeshire police said.

The force said Lapinskas died in hospital of a head injury less than an hour later.

Budurus, 40, admitted manslaughter at an earlier hearing at Cambridge crown court, police said. He was sentenced at the same court on Thursday to 16 months in prison suspended for 18 months.

CCTV showed Lapinskas had been cycling along the pavement in a “weaving motion” before stopping by a row of parked cars, and that Budurus came out of his house less than a minute later.

Budurus said in his police interview that he saw a hooded man trying to pull the wing mirror off his car. He said he punched Lapinskas “two or three times” in the face before pulling him off his bike and on to the ground. He broke down in tears during the interview and told officers it was never his intention to kill or seriously harm anyone.

The judge, David Farrell QC, sentencing, said the situation was caused by the victim, who was drunk and damaging Budurus’s car.

The judge said Budurus had no intention to cause Lapinskas serious injury, let alone death, and that he was remorseful.

Budurus was also handed a 20-day rehabilitation activity requirement.

In a statement after the court hearing, Lapinskas’s brother Gintaras said: “Although we understand the plea to manslaughter, there is no excuse to take someone’s life.”

DI Emma Pitts, of the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire major crime unit, said: “This case highlights the heartbreaking consequences of being involved in such unnecessary violence in the heat of the moment. I hope Mr Lapinskas’s family are now able to get some closure.”