hhmmm the phrase reasonable force comes to mind
Thatâs bullsh1t. I would have happily done the same thing if some violent fu*ker was threatening a member of my family.
+1 BEEN THERE B4 AND WHEN POLICE COME ALL THEY SAID WAS BLOODY BIKERS NICE AH
Surely it has to be âmanslaughterâ, itâs just the sentence that is overcooked here?
Legs and arms with a bat, never a head shot 
Nice one 
Yep - a proportionate response.
I must be soft or something. To me it seems like the right verdict but a bit light on the sentence. Once he grabs the bat the other is dis-armed and canât get into the locked room to harm the daughter. Admittedly killing him makes sure he canât but it seems a bit disproportionate to me. Once the father had the bat he had the choice of whether to use it or not.
Hrm, difficult one. Defending someone from an aggressor is always the right thing to do, more-so when itâs family perhaps, but thereâs a thin line between defence and unnecessary violence. The daughterâs life wasnât in danger by the sound of it, so hitting him on the head with a bat is a bit OTT. Youâre always going down for that.
That said, this countryâs laws on defending your land and the people in them are just retarded.
Taking someones life is a serious issue but defending my daughters is the one scenario i can think of where it could be an option. If it was me and i knew what i had done was the right thing i would happily go off to jail holding my head high because the law is the law but we can still make our own decissions .
when i hear of terrorists making making lame excuses when caught i think why dont they at least stay loyal to there cause and true to their beliefs and in a strange way i could have some respect for that .
A coviction for manslaughter is right. The sentence, Iâm not sure.
Itâs all very well pontificating that he did not need to hit him around the head and, once disarmed, the son in law was no threat, but whoâs going to make that reasoned judgement placed in that situation?
The only people Iâve known who would have reacted differently were very expensively trained by the state. But physical violence to them was a living.
If you are a non violent person, forced to violence because you are not able to consider the situation dispassionately under those conditions, your only âthoughtâ is likely to be stop the assailant, and a head hit is instinctive.
What a sad case.
One man dead, anothers life in ruins, two kids with no father and a wife/daughter in a dreadful position.
I wouldnât even think twice of acting when it comes to defend my family or my property!!
God knows what would happen to his daughter or his grand children if her husband got to her!
+1 Good post zeph!
Agreed, there are no winners at all only losers, and what are going to be the long term consequences? Are the kids going to grow up bitter and twisted seeing violence as a solution? Will they then act violently later in there own lives?
Having spoken to a community copper during a presentation at work a couple of years ago I think that the verdict is correct. Without really knowing all the details it is hard to make a informed judgement on the case.
My take on this is it was fair if you read it properly it statesâŚ
He had to be given a sentence as the family of the bloke killed had already lost a son.
and also he will be out in 15 months and was lucky to get manslaughter.
Im with the oldguy on this one, showing restraint once you have the upperhand isnt easy if your not trained to do it.
we havent heard all the facts just the BBC version, a jury heard all the facts and have come to the conclusion that he was guilty of manslaughter and I doubt the general public would think very differently to us.
+1
Holding back once you have seen someone kick the cr*p out of your daughter must be extremely difficult. Iâm not sure I could restrain myself either.
But itâs very easy to kill someone by hitting them on the head. They certainly wouldnât be leaving with any limbs in tact. 
âŚbut he had already âstoppedâ the assailant by dis-arming him. There is nothing âinstinctiveâ any more than there is anything âreasonableâ about hitting an un-armed person about the head with a cricket bat IMO. As you say very sad case.