'My heart has been ripped out': Mum's heartache after Sunderland man Dominic Robson kills brother Jordan Bell

Dominic Robson, 26, and Jordan Bell, 27, who were siblings but grew up separately after being adopted by different families, had a "heated argument" at Joseph's bar in Sunderland on July 10 last year.

Newcastle Crown Court heard after they left the pub and walked along Holmeside in the city, Robson threw one punch with his left hand that sent Mr Bell crashing to the ground and caused devastating head injuries that led to his death two weeks later.

Robson then walked away.

Robson, of Birchwood, South Hylton, admitted manslaughter and has now been jailed for five years and two months.

In a heart-breaking victim impact statement the sister of both men Sarah Bell, who works at a care home, spoke about the devastation Jordan's death has caused and the guilt she feels about prompting a reunion shortly before the killing.

She said: "The worst thing is to do with Jordan and I being adopted.

"I found our birth family first and I told Jordan and he said he wasn't interested but with me being the younger sister I begged and begged.

"He gave in and came and met the birth family.

"Things could have turned out differently. He could possibly not have met Dom, meaning he would be more likely to still be alive."

Miss Bell said on the night before Jordan passed away, she had heard her parents, who had to make the unbearable decision to switch off his ventilator, talking in the early hours of the morning.

She said: "I heard my parents cry.

"I heard my dad cry for the first time in my life."

Jordan and Sarah's parents Tracey and Andrew Bell said they were "blessed" when they adopted the siblings as children.

Mr Bell, a nursing assistant, said the decision to turn off Jordan's ventilator, after he suffered a stroke which caused his brain to swell further made the family feel "we were the ones killing him".

He added: "I know Jordan wouldn't want to live on a ventilator, being tube fed and unable to communicate or move.

"When he stopped breathing it was almost as if the last 22 years meant nothing. He should have been crying over me, not the other way around."

Mr Bell said: "I have had the very soul ripped out of me and there is nothing to replace it."

Mrs Bell said after a struggle to have children it was a "dream come true" to adopt Jordan and Sarah but it was "every parent's nightmare" when she received the 11.20pm call to say her son had been hurt.

The court heard the family were initially unable to visit Jordan, who had lived alone with his dog and cats, in hospital due to Covid but he appeared to improve until he had the stroke.

Mrs Bell said the family were at Jordan's bedside for the last week until he passed away.

She added: "I can't explain how hurt and angry I am.

"We were with Jordan until the very end.

"I just can't believe he has gone."

She added: "After years of trying we had our precious family and that's all been taken away.

"My heart has been ripped out.

"I can't believe he has gone. Life will never be the same again."

Judge Penny Moreland jailed Robson, who has a previous caution for punching another man during a row in 2019, for five years and two months.

The judge told him: "You have been too ready to use your fists in situations you find difficult."

Judge Moreland said she accepted Robson was genuinely remorseful and said: "You and he had been adopted separately and had recently got back in touch.

"You had gone out together for a drink that afternoon and there was a fall out between you.

"Your barrister characterises this as a stupid argument.

"You left the bar and while you were both in the street it seems to me you lost your temper and in that loss of temper you punched Jordan.

"He fell back onto the pavement and he sustained a serious head injury and as a result of that and complications he died two weeks later."

Judge Moreland said she had read the victim impact statements and added: "No sentence that the court can impose will lessen that grief or that loss which they have suffered."

Shaun Routledge, defending, said: "It was over in a moment. He regrets walking away.

"There was no animosity, it was a stupid argument between the pair.

"He is extremely sorry, extremely remorseful."

Robson also told detectives when he was questioned that he had been an amateur boxer for six or seven years.

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