Drug dealer doorman who killed dad-of-three jailed

A pub bouncer convicted of killing a father-of-three on a night out has been jailed for 13 years and 10 months.

Dylan Maxwell, 28, repeatedly punched 25-year-old Luke Thompson, knocking him to the floor twice, during an altercation in Pontefract in the early hours of 19 November 2023.

Thompson, who suffered a fractured skull and a bleed on the brain, died as a result of his injuries 10 days later.

Maxwell, of Wood View Avenue, Castleford, was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court after being found guilty of manslaughter.

The court heard Maxwell attacked Thompson in Front Street, after Thompson had approached him while he was arguing with an ex-girlfriend.

According to a taxi driver who gave evidence at the trial, Thompson had threatened to punch Maxwell after the pair exchanged words.

However, Judge Robin Mairs said: "Luke Thompson was no threat to you at any stage.

"You had struck and knocked him down and made whatever misguided or arrogant point you wanted to make."

He said Thompson had fallen to the ground after he was punched before getting up and being punched to the floor again.

The judge said to Maxwell, who appeared in court via video link from HMP Leeds: "You could have left matters there, but you decided to inflict further violence on an obviously dazed or unsteady man."

Following the attack, he said Maxwell left the victim "on the tarmac on the dual carriageway", where he was run over by a car, "demonstrating the malice of the attack".

The court heard Maxwell fled the scene in a taxi, using a false name, but was arrested and later charged in May 2025.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, Thompson's mother, Michelle, said: "We live with the pain of losing him every day.

"It's a scar on all of our lives that will never heal."

The court heard his partner had been eight months pregnant when he died, and their baby was born on Christmas Day.

"Luke never got the chance to meet his son, that chance was taken away from him," the statement read.

"Three children will now grow up not knowing their dad. No sentence will ever take away the pain we have suffered over the past three years."

At the time of the attack Maxwell had been under investigation for dealing drugs after a search of his house in December 2021 had found £1,610 in cash, "unusually high street quality" cocaine with a street value of £1,400, cannabis with a street value of up to £1,380, as well as a knuckle duster, three knives, steroids and 13 mobile phones.

He pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply cocaine, possession with intent to supply cannabis and two counts of possessing steroids, classified as Class C drugs.

Judge Mairs said Maxwell was a "street-level dealer" who stored the drugs in the house he shared with his children.

Maxwell was jailed for 11 years for manslaughter and ordered to serve a further two years and 10 months in prison for the drug offences.

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