A CROWN COURT judge told care worker Page he took an "appalling risk" by arming himself with a knife in self-defence.

Judge Thomas Crowther also hit-out at the 'binge drinking culture' of modern society and said heavy drinkers put themselves and others in real danger.

Sentencing Page to four years behind bars for manslaughter on Tuesday, Judge Crowther said: "When people say they are going out for a good drink, by which they mean they are going to drink a vast excess beyond all good sense when control and judgement is lost, they put themselves and others in peril and the sentence must not only punish you it must deter others.

"The jury have found that you did not intend to kill or cause really serious harm.

"That what in essence you did was to take an appalling risk in the way in which you sought to keep distance between you and the one who at that stage

was not yet your victim. The gravity is marked by the fact that despite the good counsel of others who had drunk less or were wiser you not only resisted their sensible intentions but took out a second knife when you had been disarmed the first time."

Defence barrister Oba Nsugbe said Page had been working as a Samaritan in Bristol's Horfield Prison highlighting his growing reputation among prison officers.

One officer wrote a reference commending the work carried out by Page with other prisoners in need.

Mr Nsugbe said: "He is fortunate to be surrounded by a supportive and strong family who when he is released will help him start to rebuild his life. This is something that will remain with him as long as he lives."

Judge Crowther said the manslaughter conviction would be of no comfort to Paul Rodgers' family who have been devastated by the loss of their beloved relative. "The various categories into which the law fits offences of taking lives are of little comfort to those who loved him who remain," he said.

"It is true that no doubt as a result of drink your victim had been persistently quarrelsome, aggressive and threatening, all of it however plainly by words.

"I have no doubt that he was influenced by the amount of drink he had taken.

"So too, I am quite satisfied, were you."

Page, who was sacked from his care job in Semington soon after being charged with murder, could be out within 18 months if released early by the Parole Board.

Judge Crowther recommended Page serve two-thirds of his sentence but the 30-year-old could be considered for parole as early as next May.

Home Secretary David Blunkett has been campaigning for more prisoners to be released early from sentences using a tagging device to restrict their freedom.