Brexit voter dies after brutal beating by Remainer neighbour in row over EU referendum
The pensioner threatened to set his neighbour alight after discovering he voted to Leave
A BREXIT supporter died just hours after he was beaten and threatened by a Remain-backing neighbour in a row over the result of the EU referendum.
Duncan Keating, 58, was whacked with a parasol, thumped repeatedly and threatened he would be set alight in an attack at a retirement complex.
The horrific incident took place just says after the result of the EU referendum in June, according to the .
Dunne, 62, has been jailed for four years and five months at Manchester Crown Court after admitting assault occasioning actual bodily harm against Duncan.
He also admitted causing grievous bodily harm to a 56-year-old man, and a charge of criminal damage, dating back to July last year.
A pathologist found he suffered fatal breathing difficulties after alcohol and drug consumption and the cause of death was given as positional asphyxiation.
Manchester Crown Court heard how in a tragic sequence of events, Duncan was planting seedlings in the communal garden of his home when he started a conversation with Dunne about the referendum and which way he voted.
Both men had been drinking and when Dunne found out his neighbour was a Brexiteer, he flew into a rage.
Prosecutor Maria Brannan told court: “The defendant became aggressive, asking if he had children, saying ****ing think about their generation, not yours’.”
He then brought up the fact that Mr Keating had accidentally flooded another resident’s flat by leaving a tap on, adding: “I’m going to have you, let’s ****ing sort this out.”
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Stunned witnesses watched in horror as Dunne shoved and punched his helpless victim, who didn't fight back.
CCTV shown to the court revealed Brexit supporter Duncan had fallen heavily against a stone centrepiece after being pushed over a distance of several feet.
One witness saw Dunne douse the victim with fertiliser before saying: “I’m gonna burn you.”
Cops were scrambled to the retirement complex but left after the men told them there was no problem.
Duncan was later seen sporting a large bump on his jaw and a swelling on his left arm, which he said was the result of 'handbags'.
Dunne had entered his victim's flat three times in the hours before tragic Duncan was found dead in a kneeling position on the floor by his bed at 7.25pm.
The thug's blood was recovered from the wall outside the room, and he later complained that the victim had broken his nose.
A pathologist concluded that Duncan had died from positional asphyxia and intoxication through consumption of alcohol, methadone and cannabis.
At the time, Dunne was on bail for smashing up his friend’s flat in Miles Platting with a hammer, before hitting him with it in July 2015. The victim suffered a fractured collarbone, a broken rib, a punctured lung and ‘massive’ bruising.
Dunne has convictions stretching back to 1968, but hadn’t been in trouble for twenty years until the hammer attack.
Keith Harrison, defending, said: "He’s not a man with a history of violence, and he’s been out of trouble for a very long time.
“In 2014 his wife, after a serious long illness, died after a 40-year marriage, and it left him in total ruin. He began drinking, that’s not the responsibility of these two complainants obviously, but it does explain why there was a complete sea change in his behaviour and character. Something went seriously wrong with his life.”
Sentencing Dunne, Judge Martin Rudland said of Duncan Keating’s death: “Grave consideration has been given between this event, and that tragic death, and the consultant pathologist has concluded his death was due to matters unrelated to the assault.”
He continued: "We see from the glaring CCTV footage of the event that you picked on him and you bullied him and you wouldn’t let up.
“You began by using a parasol, then we watch you punch him while he’s lying backwards in a wooden chair in the garden, and you then pursue him round the garden, shouting at him, berating him.
“He is doing nothing but backing away from you at all times, but you goad him, you harass him, you follow him, you try and out-step him and out-manoeuvre him, and when you get close to him you punch him, not once, not twice but three times.
“It was an unpleasant, brazen, bullying event.
"There is no way you would have behaved as you did to someone who was of your size and strength, and that’s quite apparent from the way in which you teased and goaded him.”
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