Southend: Killer Sinatra singer jailed for bar knifing

From the archive, first published Friday 28th May 2004.

A Southend van driver has been jailed for five years for stabbing to death a wine bar boss who objected to his Frank Sinatra impression.

Kenneth Kullman, 40, from Kilworth Avenue, plunged a steak knife into the back of Ray Bayliss after being told to leave the Maison Rouge bar, in Rotherhithe, London.

Kullman had already been drinking at another pub and, at closing time, went to the Maison Rouge and downed two glasses of wine.

After a crowd including Kullman sang Frank Sinatra song Summer Wind, bar owner Ray Bayliss, 45, snapped off the CD player and told everyone to leave.

But Kullman took it personally, the Old Bailey was told. He grabbed a chair and shouted: "Do you want to have it with me?" Kullman was then ushered out the door.

He returned, banged on the door, and when it was answered he barged past the worker, lurched into a table and smashed glasses.

He picked up a knife from the floor and ran at the owner.

Within moments Mr Bayliss said: "He has stabbed me."

The defendant claimed the stabbing, on July 31 last year, was accidental.

He was convicted of manslaughter by the jury and cleared of murder on the grounds he did not intend to kill Mr Bayliss.

Judge Gerald Gordon told him he was prepared to accept he had picked up the knife at the scene, rather than beforehand.

But he added: "The fact that you picked up a knife and deliberately used it to stab into the trunk of another human being so as to result in death must result in a substantial period of imprisonment."

 

Published Friday May 28, 2004