A man who stabbed a punter to death after a scuffle in a pub has been jailed for 10 years.

Fitzroy Daley, of Gale Street, Bow, killed 50-year-old Eric Paul with a six-inch kitchen knife in the early hours of December 22 last year.

Daley followed his victim after a confrontation outside The Widow’s Son pub in Devons Road, Bow, and attacked him from behind as he walked home along the same road.

Daley, 36, was then seen “casually” walking away, the Old Bailey heard.

A jury acquitted Daley of murder following a week-long trial but found him guilty of manslaughter.

He was given a 10-year prison sentence by Judge Charles Wide QC.

The court had previously heard that Daley and Mr Paul had been drinking at the pub when they were involved in a scuffle after Mr Paul, who had taken cocaine, was being verbally aggressive to other customers.

Prosecutor Victor Temple QC said the pair knew one another through Daley’s former girlfriend.

Both men left the pub in the early hours of December 22 before CCTV footage showed Daley patrolling the street armed with a knife.

Mr Temple told the court: “Without much ado the defendant immediately begins to attack, the CCTV clearly shows him lunging at Paul with a long knife.”

A post-mortem examination found the cause of death to be a stab wound through Mr Paul’s ribs and into his lungs, before piercing his heart.

He also suffered two other stab wounds to the chest and a wound to his left forearm so deep it would have left his arm paralysed.

No-one witnessed the attack but Mr Paul’s body was found by passers-by who called emergency services and attempted to administer first aid, before he was declared dead.