A father of four who has been cleared of manslaughter has spoken out about his 'year of hell' after missing his first daughter's birthday when he was thrown behind bars.

Reading man Darren Makepeace, 38, was acquitted of killing Lee Ringrose following a trial at Guildford Crown Court in December.

Mr Ringrose, from Bracknell, died in hospital three weeks after an altercation with Mr Makepeace outside the Kings Arms pub in Bagshot.

The trial was presented with a variety of evidence that showed the accused was acting in self-defence and after deliberations, he was fully acquitted of manslaughter by a unanimous jury.

Speaking to the Chronicle about his experience, Mr Makepeace said: "The last six months have been horrendous. I have been called a murderer, my family has been victimized and until I was found not guilty the whole town thought I was a piece of dirt.

“There have been so many rumours going around over the last six months about what happened and most have been completely false which have put both myself and my family in a bad light.”

“It’s been so hard on my family and my little girl was forced to move classes in her school all because I was wrongly accused.”

After initially being charged with GBH with no intent and manslaughter, Darren was remanded in custody at Wandsworth prison for six months.

The landscape gardener, who was in the process of launching his business just before the incident, said: “It was awful. I missed my daughter's first birthday, I was petrified for my nan, she is 87 years old and she’s in a wheelchair. I thought I’d never see her again.

“It’s really not a safe place. People were getting stabbed and sliced in the face with homemade knives.

“There was a man who was airlifted to hospital because he was stabbed in the neck with a knife. It was a worrying time. You were always looking over your shoulder.”

During the trial at Guildford Crown Court, evidence was presented to the jury which included threatening messages from the victim, drug and alcohol tests, and a lock knife that was in Mr Ringrose’s possession when he was taken to hospital.

Darren described the trial as a very stressful game of ‘snakes and ladders’.

“It’s a tricky one. When you go to court through trial, you know all the evidence you’ve got but it’s a game. It’s your barrister against their prosecutor,” Darren said.

“The evidence that was put to the jury was so much in my favour of it being self-defence but you never know what’s going to happen.

“I’ve got my life back and there’s such a sense of freedom but at the same time, I feel absolutely gutted that it happened the way it did. Even though it was self defence I have to live with this guilt for the rest of my life.

“At the end of it though, if I hadn’t of acted at that moment it could have been my family's life at stake.”

A CPS spokesperson said: “We respect the jury’s verdict. Our thoughts remain with the victim’s family.”

Mr Ringrose was described as a "loving" father of three by his family in tributes following his death. He was an avid Chelsea fan and lived in Bracknell.