The emotional moment came after one of their sons was jailed for a total of two years and six months for the manslaughter of the other at Maitland Showground.

Shortly after hearing that the boy who killed his stepson Jamie Purdon would serve one year and six months periodic detention plus one year parole, Paul Allen moved over to the teenager’s father.

They embraced briefly in their agony, exchanged a few words then moved back to console their respective families.

The 18-year-old cannot be identified because he was a juvenile when the offence took place on February 20 last year.The court found he punched Mr Purdon, who hit his head on the ground.

District Court Judge John Nield said the juvenile, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter, had been of unblemished character and had no criminal record.

“These two people did not know each other,” the judge said.

“During the night, there were a number of incidents around the showground involving verbal and physical fighting among different groups of young people at the show.”

The juvenile had been told of people allegedly threatening to harm others.

“I accept he saw himself as a champion of the vulnerable,” Judge Nield said.

“Jamie Purdon was the innocent victim of the offender’s attack.

“He had no time to defend himself and did not provoke

the offender in any way,” the judge said.

But he also accepted that the juvenile did not try to kill Mr Purdon or to cause him serious injury.

It was an impulsive, unplanned act by an immature young man.

Judge Nield said there were two main mitigating factors: the juvenile had pleaded guilty to manslaughter at the earliest opportunity and he had provided valuable help to police in another investigation, thus exposing

himself to the risk of retribution from others.

The judge also said a story in the Maitland Mercury last month naming the offender had been a violation of the Children’s Criminal Proceedings Act and he took such “public shaming” of the offender into account as a mitigating factor when determining sentence.