On the day shocking figures reveal that violent crime in North Yorkshire has risen by 25 per cent, a York thug who once kicked a man to death is jailed again for a series of booze-fuelled attacks.

THIS man was recently released from jail after serving four years for kicking a man to death in a drunken rage - today he's back behind bars after an orgy of alcohol-fuelled violence on York's streets.

Jamie Keith Richardson was caged in 1999 for manslaughter after viciously assaulting mental patient Marcus Pullan in the grounds of The Retreat.

Having served his sentence Richardson walked out of prison only to embark on a campaign of violence across the city which finally came to end in December.

Today the 23-year-old, of Peppercorn Close, Holgate Road, York, was starting a 30-month jail term as new figures released show that violent crime in North Yorkshire has risen 25 per cent, with more than 10,000 incidents within nine months.

Violence now accounts for more than a fifth of all crime in the county.

The figures also come in the wake of a suspected armed robbery at the Money Express store in Acomb last night.

York Crown Court, sitting in Middlesbrough, heard how the racist thug continued his drink-fuelled terror attacks on innocent bystanders in York after his release from jail.

Prosecutor Nicholas Ralph said that rugby union player Richardson's outbursts included:

In July, threatening to knife two men as they were walking home from a football match in Holgate Road and punching one of them to the ground, though he did not produce a knife.

In August, violently abusing an Afro-Caribbean man who was walking near Knavesmire with his partner and two toddlers, aged two and four.

In October, stealing alchohol from a Haxby shop.

In December, trying to bite a policeman while rampaging in Fulford Road Police Station following his arrest for trying to break a door in his girlfriend's flat. One officer described it as the worst violence he had ever seen.

During the Holgate Road attack Richardson yelled out: "I run these streets. I am going to kill you."

He repeatedly got bail after his attacks until he was remanded in custody for the attack on police on December 27.

Today Richardson was starting 30 months in jail after pleading guilty to two offences each of assault and resisting police and one each of affray, racist abuse, shoplifting and criminal damage.

His barrister, James Robinson, told the court that Richardson's nose was broken in one of the 2004 attacks.

"He was hit in the face and deserved it," said the Honorary Recorder of York, Judge Paul Hoffman.

In 1999, Richardson punched Marcus Pullan repeatedly, breaking the man's ribs, puncturing his lung and breaking his jaw. His victim died four days later. Only ten days before the attack, he had been spared a jail sentence for a string of offences - including three assaults.

Updated: 11:21 Friday, February 18, 2005