A Teignmouth man who stabbed a neighbour to death in a house dispute was this week jailed for nine years.

Lee Webber claimed it was 'an accidental murder, it was an accidental killing', his lawyer Alun Jenkins, QC, told a court.

After sentence was passed there was an angry reaction from some members of the dead man's family.

One had to be escorted from the busy courtroom after shouting at Webber that he was 'a dead man'.

Webber had been living at his former girlfriend's home in Kingsway, Teignmouth, but she moved out to stay with friends and wanted Webber out.

The woman, Suzanne Noonan, and a friend called Dan Bury went to the house on January 24 this year and there was an argument and confrontation.

Webber, a fisherman, plunged a knife into the heart of 29-year-old Mr Bury who immediately collapsed.

Webber left the scene carrying the blood stained knife and then went on the run, giving himself up two days later in Exmouth, Devon.

He admitted manslaughter shortly after his murder trial had begun and yesterday Webber, now 27, who has 52 previous court appearances including ones for violence, was jailed for nine years.

Jailing him, Mr Justice Butterfield told Exeter crown court: 'You have taken the life of a much loved partner, father and son. No sentence of mine can restore the life of that man and mend the broken hearts of those whose lives have been devastated.'

The judge said Webber had fled the scene without trying to help Mr Bury or get him medical assistance.

The judge said: 'That clearly indicates that you knew perfectly well that you had committed a grave crime.'

He said Webber would serve half the nine-year sentence behind bars, less 179 days he has already served on remand.

Earlier prosecutor Martin Meeke, QC, told the court that Miss Noonan had quit her rented home a few weeks before the killing after Webber had assaulted her.

She had gone to stay with friends a few doors away on the same estate.

On the day of the killing, Miss Noonan and Mr Bury, who armed himself with an old rolling pin, went to her house to get Webber to leave.

There was an angry exchange and Webber fired plastic pellets from a BB gun at them, but missed.

Mr Bury then went to the back of the house and Webber armed himself with a knife to 'scare him away'.

Eventually they barged their way into the house and he stabbed Mr Bury in the chest.

Webber told police that the victim was trying to bearhug him and he accidentally stabbed him in self-defence.

Mr Meeke said police tried to re-enact what had happened two or three times but it 'simply did not work'.

Mr Meeke said Webber hid the knife and tried to avoid detection by getting a taxi from Bishopsteignton to Exmouth, where he gave himself up two days after going on the run.

He said Webber has 52 court appearances dating back to when he was just 15 years of age and they included a number of convictions for violence – some of it against Miss Noonan.

Defence barrister Mr Jenkins said: 'He intended no harm whatsoever.

'He told police this was an accidental murder, an accidental killing, that's the view he took of it. he did not intend to hurt, harm, stab or kill Mr Bury.'

Webber, dressed in a blue t-shirt and blue jogging bottoms, left the dock to the cells by a back exit as the victim's family filed past the dock.

Mr Bury's partner was in a flood of tears, as was Webber's mother, who sat just feet away from her son.