A disc jockey who knifed a pubgoer to death after a row over the music he was playing has been jailed for seven years.

Phillip Edwards stabbed 50-year-old father-of-one Godfrey Swaby of Seldon Street, Bradford, once inside the West End bar in Lumb Lane, Manningham, and then pursued him outside where he knifed him twice more.

Jamaican-born Mr Swaby had criticised the 'garage' style music being played and asked the DJ to play some reggae, Bradford Crown Court heard.

As Edwards began his sentence, Bradford police officers won praise from the judge and prosecuting counsel for the energy and impartiality brought to their investigation into Mr Swaby's death. The comments come days after the controversial Stephen Lawrence Report highlighted the failure of the Metropolitan Police to properly investigate the murder of the black teenager in 1993.

The successful investigation into Mr Swaby's killing - which involved 130 witnesses - was a credit to Bradford, said Judge Gerald Coles QC.

Edwards, 29, of Brantwood Crescent, Bradford, yesterday entered guilty pleas to the manslaughter of Mr Swaby on the grounds of provocation and a separate allegation of wounding him with intent to do him grievous bodily harm.

Judge Gerald Coles QC said any cynicism about whether criticism of musical abilities could amount to provocation had been assuaged by hearing about a fatal road accident in which Edwards suffered a badly injured leg and saw his friend died.

"I'm prepared to accept that had a great influence on your personality, and caused you to absorb yourself entirely in your music," he said.

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