A JURY in the case of an attack which left a man bleeding to death outside his home heard the tragic circumstances which led to the murder.

Damien Lee Hill, 45, of no fixed address, was sentenced to life imprisonment yesterday after murdering his friend Guy Hamilton last year.

Hill will serve a minimum of 16 years in jail for slashing the throat of Mr Hamilton in his flat in what was described by the judge as a "drunken murder."

On Monday, Preston Crown Court heard that in the hours before Mr Hamilton's death, he had attended the Barrow AFC match against Wrexham after a chance meeting with Hill on April 30.

Hill, who had already drunk two cans of Carlsberg Special Brew and two other cans of beer, continued drinking with Mr Hamilton at the ground, and afterwards at a local pub.

However, after returning to Mr Hamilton's flat, during a six-minute period between 9.44pm and 9.52pm, Hill fatally injured Mr Hamilton with a machete blow to the neck.

Hill had sliced Mr Hamilton’s jugular vein, causing damage to his voice box and spine. By the time emergency services arrived, it was too late.

Mr Simon Medland QC, setting out the case for the prosecution on the first day of the trial, said: “Having escaped from his flat, Mr Hamilton went to his neighbour’s to try and get some help, losing blood all of the time.

“He effectively bled to death.”

On the second day of the trial, distressing audio footage was played to the jury of the 999 call Mr Hamilton tried to make as he struggled to breathe.

The horrendous injury sustained after Hill slashed him across the neck left the victim reduced to making barely audible gurgling, wheezing and panting noises.

With the operator unable to establish his location, Mr Hamilton stumbled to neighbour Callum Stuart’s house, who took the mobile from him and administered first aid.

As the ambulance arrived at the scene, Mr Stuart told the operator: “He is having trouble breathing. The blood is all going through his throat now. His lungs are filling up with blood.

“He has gone unconscious now.”

Video footage taken in the aftermath of Mr Hamilton's death was shown to jury members on Wednesday. It showed pools of blood on the step in front of Mr Hamilton's flat, and flecks of blood spattered on the floor next to the machete that was used to kill him.

It also was on Wednesday that Hill gave his version of the events of April 30. Throughout the trial he maintained he never intended to kill his friend, and due to his level of intoxication, could not remember the events that led to Mr Hamilton's death.

He said he could not think of a reason why he would kill his friend of more than 20 years.

Mr Medland said this was a fabrication, claiming the defendant chose only to remember what was beneficial for his defence.

After retiring to deliberate on Thursday, it was not until 11.30am on Friday that the jury returned with their verdict. It took just over five hours for the jury to find Hill guilty of murder.

After the verdict was made, Mr Medland told the court of Hill's previous convictions.

Hill was known to have led a life of criminality during the late 1980s and 1990s.

In December of 1998 he was jailed for six years for wounding with intent after he stabbed a man. The court heard Hill had long been involved in drug-related crime and that, after an altercation, he had stabbed a man in the chest with a knife.

Hill's other crimes included three convictions for assault occasioning actual bodily harm between 1988 and 1995.

He was also convicted of possession of a bladed article in 1989, common assault in 1996, and assaulting a police officer in 1997.

Detective chief inspector Furzana Nazir said: "I am pleased that Damien Hill has been convicted of killing Guy Hamilton, and that he will now spend time in prison for what he did."