Video: Jacob Dunne tells Notts TV’s Iain Chambers how he met James’s parents
A Nottingham man who killed a trainee paramedic in a brawl is running a campaign to prevent youth violence after coming face-to-face with his victim’s parents.
Jacob Dunne, from the Meadows, felled James Hodgkinson with a single punch outside Yates’s on Old Market Square in August 2011.
James, 28, died in hospital ten days later and Jacob was sent to prison for manslaughter.
After being released he agreed to meet James’s family to answer their questions and help rebuild their lives – a process known as ‘restorative justice’.
He says the experience had a profound impact on him and he is now being backed by James’s mum and dad in his efforts to develop a ‘one punch’ campaign – warning young people in Nottingham of the dangers of getting in to trouble on a night out.
Jacob, who was 19 at the time, swung the punch after he intervened in a scuffle between his friends and a group which included James, who was in town for an England versus India test match at Trent Bridge.
Jacob said: “Me being me back then, I went running straight down, and without really thinking about what I was doing, why the altercation had occurred, without knowing all the facts, decided to throw a punch at one of the people, and they fell unconscious.
“That’s where I ran away, and wasn’t quite aware of the seriousness of what had happened.”
Jacob only discovered James had died after police who were looking for him started raiding the homes of his friends a month after the incident.
He handed himself in – and was initially told by detectives he was being investigated for murder.
Jacob, from the Meadows, was later charged with the lesser offence of manslaughter, pleaded guilty, and was given 30 months in jail.
He was released after just over a year, saying his time behind bars didn’t change him – but the offer to meet James’ parents did.
The word ‘sorry’ wasn’t enough
“I was kind of feeling as if I was the unfortunate one [at first],” he said.
“When I did meet them just saying the word ‘sorry’ wasn’t enough so what I wanted to do was actually prove to them that I was sorry by going out and raising awareness through what we are now calling the one punch campaign, to show how easily it can happen.
“I meant what I said and was doing what I could to repair some of the harm that had been caused.
“David, James’s dad says if I can become just a fraction of the person he was, then he will be happy with how things have gone.”
James’s mum Joan Scourfield, from Ipswich, told ITV: “After James died I would have been happy to see Jacob jailed for 25 years. I just thought he was a thug and would not have wanted to have anything to do with him.
“Today I’m happy to sit next to him. I see him as a boy when he hit James, and as a man today.”
Besides being part of the campaign, Jacob is now studying criminology at Nottingham Trent University.
