Two sailors who were caught on camera beating a man to death after a night on the town have been jailed for life.

Kevin Lewis, 21, and Andrew Nicholson, 19, were serving on aircraft carrier HMS Invincible when they attacked 30-year-old Neil Rivers in Portsmouth city centre, Hampshire on 19 June, 1999.

The marine engineering mechanics - who had returned from active service in the Persian Gulf and Kosovo - were convicted of murder after a week-long trial at Winchester Crown Court.

Mr Justice Butterfield said the men had "launched a vicious, brutal, sustained and unprovoked attack, causing dreadful injuries from which he died".

The sailors had been at the Club Europa nightclub in the city centre shortly before the attack, which was caught on film by security cameras.

They were arrested four days later after police released pictures of them taken from further cameras at the nightclub.

'Justice won't bring Neil back'

Mr Michael Parroy QC, prosecuting, told the jury Mr Rivers was punched, kicked and stamped on before being left lying in a pool of blood in Commercial Road.

"This was a vicious, unprovoked and sustained attack mounted upon him by these two defendants," said Mr Parroy.

"The attack was so violent that it could easily be heard quite a long way away at the railway station."

The court heard that Nicholson had telephoned for an ambulance when he realised how badly Mr Rivers had been hurt.

The victim, of Oriel Road, Portsmouth, was taken to the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Cosham but died later that morning.

Nicholson, from Paisley, Glasgow, and Lewis, of Bangor, Northern Ireland, both admitted manslaughter but denied murder.

John Rivers, the victim's brother, said outside court: "We have got justice but it still won't bring Neil back. He didn't deserve to be beaten to death."