Horrendous footage showing the final moments of a dad after he stepped in to stop a fight outside a Wetherspoons has proved vital in sending six thugs to jail.
Reece Cox, 24, was trying to protect a man he barely knew from a beating when the six men turned on the dad instead on August 15 last year.
The 'gentle giant' was savagely set upon outside a Wetherspoons pub in Sedgley, West Midlands, with his killers raining blows down on him and brutally kicked him in the head as he lay defenceless on the floor.
The CCTV was shown to jurors who convicted five men of Mr Cox's murder and a sixth of manslaughter, Birmingham Live reports.
The vital evidence threw out their claim they were acting in self-defence and has now been released by West Midlands Police.
At Wolverhampton Crown Court Shane Jones, 26, Wayne Burke, 23, Shaquel Halliday, 22, Adam Ashwin, 20 and Sebastian Jones, 19, were jailed for life on Wednesday for Mr Cox's murder.
They will serve a combined total of at least 87-and-a-half years before they will be considered for release.
Ryan Nickin, 22, was found guilty of manslaughter and jailed for 12 years.
The innocent dad-of-one had been on a night out with friends and ended up in the pub before the group split up to buy food separately before going home.
Two people Mr Cox had met that night set off towards a taxi rank when one accidentally bumped into a teenager called Joe Williams.
At this, the group attacked one of the men with Ashwin dragging him into the road and back towards the pub.
Mr Cox, described as a man who would "always step in to help if he didn’t like what he saw", stepped in to help.
But Ashwin and his friends rounded on Mr Cox and beat him to death.
A post-mortem examination revealed he died from blunt trauma to his head.
Shane Jones, Burke, Shaquel Halliday, Ashwin, Sebastian Jones and Nickin were also convicted of violent disorder and causing actual bodily harm.
At the start of the trial, two other men Tyrone Halliday, 24, and Williams, 18, pleaded guilty to affray and causing actual bodily harm retrospectively.
Tyrone Halliday was given a two-year community order for affray and ordered to undertake 150 hours of unpaid work and 20 days of rehabilitation.
Williams was sentenced to 10 months in prison, suspended for two years, and must also complete 25 days of rehabilitation.
Mr Cox's grieving partner Rebecca Ball said their five-year-old son 'cries for his daddy most days', while she had been unable to summon the strength to return to work as a nurse.
A heart-wrenching victim impact statement from Ms Ball was read to the court.
"We have had our whole future as a family taken away from us," she said.
"On the day he died, it was the sixth anniversary of the day we met - what would and should always have been a happy and special day will now be a sad and permanent reminder of his horrific and senseless killing year after year.
"It is now over eight months since Reece was killed and we have not come to terms with it - I doubt we ever will."
Following the sentencing Mr Cox's heartbroken family paid tribute to the 'much-loved' dad..
In a statement they said: “Reece was a gentle giant. Never aggressive but would step up and front anything that wasn’t right. He would always go out of his way to help others.
“Reece’s partner and son have had their whole future as a family taken away from them. On the day he died, it was the couple’s six-year anniversary of when they first met and what would and should have been a happy and special day, but now it will be a sad and permanent reminder of his horrific and senseless killing year after year.
“Reece and his son had an amazing bond and he is our constant reminder of Reece. It has broken our hearts to see the torment he has had to go through, losing his dad at the age of four.
“Reece was a hero that night and lost his life-saving someone else’s. We still cannot believe he has gone and think about him every single day."
Det Insp Laura Harrison, from West Midlands Police's Homicide Team, said: “What is so upsetting about what happened to Reece is that anyone could have been him that night. He was simply on a night out with friends and tried to intervene in a fight that cost him his life.
“Reece was an innocent member of the public who wasn’t out to cause trouble, he simply wanted to enjoy a night out. These men were out looking for a fight that night and an accidental knock as someone walked past them is all it took to set them off.
“I can’t imagine what Reece’s family are going through in what has been a difficult year for all, let alone a family who had their son, father and partner taken away from them so cruelly.
“Although no sentence will ever bring Reece back, I hope they can gain some closure from this knowing that those that caused Reece’s death have been brought to justice."
