A judge said former jockey Levi Williams “could have just run away” when he was jailed for punching a pensioner outside a pub, causing him to fall and hit his head on the ground.
Williams, 27, was sentenced to three years in prison for the murder of Richard Winggrove, 71, of Newmarket, Suffolk, who died in hospital 10 days after Williams beat him.
Prosecutor Jane Oldfield told Peterborough Crown Court Mr Wingrove, who walks with a cane, and his son Jamie Wingrove were drinking in a pub in the town center on March 8, 2025.
She said the two Wingrove men were “separately ejected from Waggon and Horses for disorderly and abusive behavior towards staff”.
The barrister said Williams had been at the pub with his friend Matthew Wilson and both jockeys were present while Wingroves was “getting into an altercation with pub staff”.
She said a “physical altercation broke out between Jamie Wingrove and the publican in the doorway” of Waggon and Horses at 3.30pm.
CCTV footage shown to the court showed jockeys trying to block the man’s entry.
Later, when the two jockeys left the pub, Mr Oldfield said there was a “verbal exchange between the defendant and the Wingroves”.
“You can see the defendant throwing a punch at Jamie Wingrove and then at Richard Wingrove,” she said.
She said the old man fell to the ground, then got back up and “joined the fight again.”
The argument continued and Mr Oldfield said Williams “suddenly punched Richard Wingrove in the head, causing him to fall and hit his head on the pavement”.
Mr Wingrove died in Cambridge Hospital on March 18 after initially falling into a coma due to a fractured skull and a brain haemorrhage.
Mr Oldfield said that when he was arrested Williams, now of Trepponen, Oswestry, Shropshire, was “described as drunk, shaken and saying ‘it was an accident'”.
“He tested positive for cocaine,” she added.
Williams, who last won at Chelmsford in February 2023, said in an interview that he had consumed two or three pints of beer and that two men he did not know were arguing with bar staff who refused to serve them beer.
The prosecutor summarized the interview by saying, “Believing the men had gone out, the defendant and his friend went back to work.” However, they met the men outside the bar.
She said the defendant was “throwing punches from both sides and he felt very threatened.”
Judge Sean Enright told Williams he “wasn’t the aggressor to begin with”.
“The initial blow you struck could be classified as self-defense,” he said.
“The last punch cannot be justified as such.
“You and your friend could have just left sooner.”
Williams Originally charged with murder After his arrest in March 2025. He appeared at Peterborough Crown Court on April 10 and pleaded guilty to manslaughter, which prosecutors accepted.
“This is a case where only custody can be justified,” Judge Enright said after sentencing him to three years in prison at the same court on Thursday.
“You were drunk, on cocaine and you hit a vulnerable person on the head.”
Sobbing could be heard from the public gallery as Williams was led to his cell.
Mr Wingrove’s daughter, Louisa Reah, said in a victim impact statement that her father had “poor eyesight and was dependent on a cane”.
She said her younger daughter was pregnant at the time of the incident and that the child “could have been my father’s first great-grandchild.”
William England said Williams “has never been involved in violence of any kind in the past.”
Speaking outside the court after the hearing, Detective Inspector Hannah Barrett said Richard Wingrove was “celebrating his birthday” when he lost his life in a “completely avoidable act of violence”.
She said his death “has taken a huge toll on so many people”.
