A Bromley teenager who killed a "peacemaker" with a single punch when he intervened in an altercation after a party has had his sentence cut by nine months.

At the Old Bailey in October last year, Ben Hayes, of Constable Mews, was sentenced to four and a half years in a young offender institution for the manslaughter of apprentice electrician George Verrier.

George, 17, died in September 2013 - the day after the punch caused him to fall to the ground and hit his head on the road.

The "healthy, funny and intelligent young man" was briefly unconscious before going home with a friend and sleeping, but was taken to hospital when he could not be roused the next day.

A post-mortem showed that the impact with the road had caused a skull fracture and bleeding from an injured artery.

At the Court of Appeal in London today, Mr Justice Jeremy Baker said that George's family and friends had suffered an "irreparable and devastating loss".

Sitting with Lord Justice Jackson and Mr Justice Jay, he said: "We recognise that in reality no sentence is sufficient to assuage their loss.

"However, we must focus on the true culpability of the appellant at the date of the offence. He too was a 17-year-old of exemplary character."

Substituting a sentence of 45 months, he said that - bearing in mind the strength of the blow and the absence of any other significant aggravating factors - although the sentence would be unimpeachable if Hayes was older, the current sentence inadequately reflected the significance of his age at the material time.

Hayes, now 19, who was at a football academy, had attended the same 16th birthday party at Blenheim Road, Bromley, as George, who was an acquaintance.

The party passed without incident and both had drunk only moderately.

But afterwards, a "pumped up and angry" Hayes confronted someone he thought had assaulted a friend, and shouted at George when he intervened as a peacemaker, before punching him on the left side of the face.