A footballer who killed another non-League player in a “cowardly” one-punch attack after a “nonsensical argument” at a railway station has been jailed.
Mckenzie Dicicco, 22, hit married father-of-one James Hitchcock from behind while he was eating at Burger King at York station after a day out with friends.
Mr Hitchcock, 32, who was a goalkeeper for Barton Town FC, in North Lincolnshire, suffered a fatal head injury and died in hospital three days later.
On Wednesday Dicicco, who has played at Thornaby, Northallerton and Pickering football clubs, was jailed for six years and eight months after pleading guilty to manslaughter.
Leeds Crown Court heard the two men did not know each other until their paths crossed at the station on 15 December last year.
Mr Hitchcock, who had a six-month-old son, had travelled from his home in Cottingham in East Yorkshire for a day out with a group of friends, while Dicicco had come from Middlesbrough with his girlfriend and two friends.
The court heard Dicicco became drunk during the day, and at one point was thrown out of a pop-up bar in York Museum Gardens.
Paul Greaney KC, prosecuting, said Dicicco was waiting for his train home, eating some food he brought from the station’s Sainsbury’s shop, when Mr Hitchcock and his friends walked past and Mr Hitchcock appeared to point in the general direction of the defendant’s group.
Mr Greaney said: “That gesture is difficult to interpret and not explained in the evidence but does not appear to be aggressive. This immediately grabbed the defendant’s attention.”
The court heard words were exchanged between Mr Hitchcock’s group and Dicicco, who “squared up to them” and resisted efforts to calm him down.
Mr Greaney said Mr Hitchcock could be seen on CCTV approaching the defendant “with palms open, not offering any violence”, ultimately going into Sainsbury’s with his friends and waiting there until the coast was clear and the defendant had gone to his platform.
The court heard Dicicco attempted to go back and was clearly agitated, spotting Mr Hitchcock at Burger King before his girlfriend pulled him away.
Mr Greaney said Dicicco’s train was delayed from 8.36pm to 8.43pm, and so he “knew he had a 10-minute window of time” when he left the platform and walked back towards the concourse.
The defendant later claimed he wanted to go to the toilet and buy water for the journey, and had not decided to confront Mr Hitchcock until he saw him, but prosecutors rejected that account, saying he had already bought water and had just relieved himself next to a fully functioning vending machine that had water in it.
Mr Greaney said: “The prosecution position is that the defendant made a deliberate decision to walk from the platform to Burger King to assault James Hitchcock.”
The court heard Dicicco walked directly to Burger King, rotated his right hand as if to loosen his wrist and “delivered a forceful punch” with his right fist to the right of Mr Hitchcock’s head.
Mr Greaney said: “The position of the Crown is that this was a dreadful and cowardly attack committed by the defendant as (Mr Hitchcock) was facing away from him.
“He must have been completely unaware of the impending assault and unable to defend himself from it in any way.”
In a victim personal statement read in court, Mr Hitchcock’s wife April Hitchcock said her husband “was robbed of the opportunity to defend himself”.
She said: “James was the type of person who would light up a room with his warming presence, enthusiasm and infectious laugh.”
She said Mr Hitchcock was an engineer with BAE systems as well as playing football at a semi-professional level and was “dedicated to the game which allowed him the opportunity to play for Leeds United Academy”.
Mrs Hitchcock added: “His love for the game was overshadowed by his love for his teammates and he soon became the goalkeeper they loved and needed.”
A statement from Mr Hitchcock’s brother Kurt Hitchcock said he “had to say goodbye to my brother right before his first Christmas with his newborn son”.
His friend Ben Lewis, who was there on the night, said Mr Hitchcock’s death had a huge impact in the footballing community, and he has since had cup competitions named after him and memorial matches played “in memory of the amazing person he was”.
He said: “What should have been an annual Christmas friends’ celebration turned into the worst night of our lives.
“Hitchy’s death is unbearable. It’s terrible the effect one punch can have on the lives of so many people.”
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