CHRISTOPHER Randall began a life sentence on Monday after being found guilty of murdering Daniel Doherty in his Warminster home.

The jury at Bristol Crown Court took two and a half hours to unanimously find the 19 year-old guilty of murdering Mr Doherty, who was found on his sofa with severe head injuries caused by a kitchen knife and saucepan.

Randall, of Myrtle Avenue, Warminster, was also convicted on two counts of common assault on his former girlfriend, Louise Scott, one count of actual bodily harm and one count of robbery.

Judge Mark Dyer, sentencing Randall to life, said he had committed a series of mean offences and had thought himself to be above the law.

Randall denied murder but pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of provocation, taking the witness stand last Thursday to say Mr Doherty had tried to force him into having gay sex.

Admitting that his initial story to the police about Doherty abducting him at knifepoint from Warminster town centre was a 'complete lie', Randall said it was pride that had stopped him telling the truth.

Under cross-examination from prosecutor Christopher Clark QC, Randall said: "At the time I would rather be branded a murderer than a homosexual.

"Going back to the flat would indicate that I had some intention of doing something with him. I didn't want the label of being a queer."

Randall said once in Doherty's flat in Westleigh, Doherty had asked him if he liked men, before creating a trip wire with a leather belt which knocked him over, and trying to pull his trousers down while kneeling on the soles of his feet.

After escaping, Randall said Doherty pushed him on to the sofa, straddled him and tried to stab him, before he hit him with a saucepan and a 'red mist descended'.

Mr Clark asked Randall about the conversation he had with Doherty about Jack the Ripper, saying he had acted in the style of the serial killer after Doherty had been killed.

He said: "Having knocked Daniel Doherty with the saucepan he was offering no resistance to you. You weren't plunging the knife. It would seem from the pathologist's evidence that you were using the tip of the knife to cause incisions on that man's neck.

"Are you sure a red mist had come down over your eyes or were you being sadistically cruel?"

Nigel Pascoe QC, defending, said there were elements of truth in Randall's lies and urged the jury to take account of his immaturity and the fact that something must have happened in the flat, for him to have gone so far.

Randall also disputed the evidence of Mrs Christine Reece, a forensic scientist, who said due to the distribution of blood spattering on his clothes, Randall may have been naked from the waist up at the time of the attack.