A 22-year-old man tragically died after taking part in a challenge with a friend which involved punching one another to see who could withstand the hardest hit.
Liam Morgan-Whittle, 22, died on March 25, 2023, following the challenge to see "who could take a punch best" following a night out, according to authorities.
He and Jason Thomas, now 40, knew each other after briefly working for the same construction company.
The pair, from Wales, had returned to an apartment following a night out, where they "started to boast about who could take a punch the best, resulting in Thomas punching the victim twice in quick succession," a press release from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) stated.
The release added: "The blows knocked Mr Morgan-Whittle unconscious and his health rapidly deteriorated leading to emergency services being called.
"Sadly, despite the efforts of the emergency services, Liam Morgan-Whittle died from his injuries."
Dyfed-Powys Police added that Morgan-Whittle had suffered "catastrophic head injuries from two punches" before his death.
The BBC reports that the court heard that the pair had been at a friend's house drinking alcohol and taking cocaine, and had been "joking and laughing" throughout the evening.
Prosecutor William Hughes KC told the court: "There came a point in the evening where they began a discussion which could be described as banter but became an increasingly aggressive argument as to who could take a punch better."
Michael Davies, whose apartment the incident occurred in, told the couple that Thomas had told Morgan-Whittle: "I'll hit you first," and he'd allegedly responded: "Go on then."
Davies told police that he had "tried to discourage the punching game."
Thomas's defense lawyer, John Hipkin KC, told the court that his client "never intended that Liam Morgan-Whittle be seriously injured, let alone die. There was a punch-for-punch game the two had become involved in."
He added that Thomas "has struggled to cope with what he has done. His remorse is genuine."
Judge Paul Thomas KC told the court: "This tragic event was fueled by your excessive alcohol and cocaine use which caused you to lose all common sense.
"You were warned by someone present not to do that. He could see the risk. But you in your substance-befuddled state, could not.
"Both the punches you delivered were with great force, sufficient to knock him unconscious, and then to go into cardiac arrest from which he never recovered," per the BBC.
Thomas was sentenced to two years and six months in prison at Swansea Crown Court on Monday, March 3, having pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Morgan-Whittle's mother, Claire Whittle, shared her devastation at her son's death, saying in a statement shared in the police press release: "What this has done to me and us as a family is something I would not want anyone else to ever have to go through.
"Liam didn’t have an illness that took him too early, he didn’t have an unexpected accident and he didn’t want to die. He was killed.
"No matter what I say, words cannot explain the pain, devastation, anguish, and anger we have endured since Liam was taken. Nobody should go through a tragedy like we all have because it is unending.
"We will never come to terms with it, and we will never heal."
She added: "Liam was 22 years old when he was taken from us. He had time on his side to fulfill his dreams. Those have all been shattered now, as well as my dreams for him.
"I never thought for one minute that the last time I saw Liam I would never see him again, that a night out would turn into a lifetime of what ifs and maybes."