THE family of a man who died the day after he was the victim of a drunken assault said last night his assailant's 16-month prison sentence "was nothing".

But the family remain angry with 31-year-old Neil Hodgson, who was said to have been "a friend" of Jason Embleton.

Mr Embleton, 31, from Willington, County Durham, died in hospital the day after the assault, which took place when both were drinking with friends at a house in the town, on September 16.

Hodgson, who had drunk several litres of cider, slapped Mr Embleton, before punching him twice in the face and kicking him in the head, causing a sofa on which he was sitting to crash into a wall.

Mr Embleton briefly lost consciousness. When he woke, he was bleeding from his lip, and complained of feeling sick.

He was given a T-shirt to wipe away the blood and led from the house, in Cambridge Avenue.

Durham Crown Court heard that a short time later, he was seen staggering nearby before falling over on waste ground, near Willington Primary School.

He died in hospital the following day. A post-mortem examination was unable to directly link the assault with his death.

A pathologist was unable to say if it was the force of a blow or the fall that led to his death.

It resulted in Hodgson, also 31, initially held on suspicion of murder, facing only a charge of assault causing actual bodily harm.

Hodgson, of Rockingham Road, Sunnybrow, Willington, admitted the offence at a previous hearing and sentence was remitted to the crown court yesterday.

Chris Baker, mitigating, told yesterday's hearing that both Mr Embleton and Hodgson, "were deeply involved in a culture of alcoholism".

But he said Hodgson had not drunk since, had become "a pariah in his community" and had been beaten up.

Imposing a 16-month sentence, which he said was, "commensurate with the offence", Recorder Simon Phillips told Hodgson: "I'm told Jason Embleton was your friend, but one witness said you bullied him and it could be properly described as a brutal and violent assault, and not the act of a friend."

After the hearing, Mr Embleton's adoptive mother, Patricia, who was with his sister, Amanda Brunskill, said: "It's as long as we expected, I suppose. But 16 months is nothing. We hold him responsible 100 per cent for causing Jason's death. But whatever he got can't bring Jason back."