Man pleads guilty to fatal attack

Terence Garner died in a nursing home

A Stoke-on-Trent man has pleaded guilty to killing a man who died nearly five years after being assaulted.

Michael Clifford, 27, from Chell Heath, pleaded guilty to manslaughter at Stafford Crown Court over the death of Terence Garner, 57.

Mr Garner, also from the Chell Heath area, was assaulted in December 2002 and died in a nursing home last year.

Clifford was previously convicted of inflicting grievous bodily harm but was re-arrested after Mr Garner's death.

He had been given a four-year sentence after the earlier conviction in August 2003, Staffordshire Police said.

However, he was re-arrested in June 2008 by officers from the force's major investigation unit and charged with manslaughter following Mr Garner's death.

Clifford has been remanded in custody and will be sentenced in October.