Second prison term over assault

Bailey was told to serve at least eight years of his life term

A man has been jailed for life for the murder of a father-of-three who died seven years after he was attacked.

David Beech, 42, died in 2004 of medical complications caused by severe brain injuries which he suffered outside a pub in Stoke-on-Trent.

Adrian Bailey, 30, of Shelton, who had already served a jail sentence for the attack, was jailed for his murder.

His friend, Michael Golden, 27, of Rossett Grove, Packmoor, was jailed for 18 months for manslaughter.

Sentences served

Golden was cleared of murder this week following the trial at Stafford Crown Court.

The former soldier has also served time in jail for grievous bodily harm imposed before the paralysed victim's death.

At the initial trial in 1998, Bailey pleaded guilty and Golden was convicted of wounding Mr Beech. Bailey was given a five-year prison sentence and Golden six years.

Police this week said the case was the first occasion in Staffordshire in which defendants had been successfully tried for a second time for the same incident following a victim's death.

The attackers left Mr Beech in a pool of blood in the Goldenhill area after a fight relating to Bailey's ex-girlfriend outside the Red Lion in June 1997.

Pair 'laughing'

The judge, Mr Justice Mackay, told the men the case set a difficult sentencing exercise because they had both served sentences imposed before the death.

He said: "You have both experienced what the law calls double jeopardy - you have been tried a second time after your release from the first sentence.

"You both exalted in what you had done, laughing as you ran down the road.

"You both knew that you had left David Beech unconscious and as Bailey accurately put it, half dead, lying in a side road on his own."

Bailey was told he would serve at least eight years of his life term before being considered for parole.

Mr Beech spent long periods in hospital before being cared for at his parents' home in Sandyford, Stoke-on-Trent.