OWEN Wood has been jailed for nine years for killing Liam Holden.

Liam Holden, 35, was killed in the early hours of Sunday, March 10 after Owen Wood attacked him having followed him away from the Euro Lounge nightclub, in Grays.

During the two-week trial Owen Wood, 24, of Godman Road, Chadwell St Mary, said he had punched and kicked Mr Holden, but was acting in ‘self defence’ and ‘never intended to kill him.’ He was found guilty of manslaughter on Friday, October 4.

His younger brother Ryan, 21, was found not guilty of murder by the jury.

Today, Owen Wood was told he would spend nine years behind bars with an extended license of two years, meaning he can be recalled to prison within that period.

Judge Charles Gratwicke said nobody who heard the evidence could feel anything but "revulsion, anger and disgust at the way he behaved that night."

He said: "Whatever happened initially outside that club with Liam Holden had nothing to do with you, and yet you have followed him, as CCTV footage made clear, and intended to inflict violence upon him.

"You engaged in a violent attack on him, punching and kicking him when he was on the floor. The risk of really serious injury is obvious to one and all but such was your desire to inflict violence that you did so with tragic consequences."

Owen Wood has previous convictions for attacking a man in 2006 and attacking a man with a machete in 2007, when he was jailed in the high-security Belmarsh Prison.

Mr Holden died of diffuse axinol injuries - a lethal type of traumatic brain damage.