A KILLER was yesterday jailed for life for what his own barrister described as the "atrocious" murder of a van driver.

Last night, it emerged that James Brabbs was on bail for carrying weapons when he stabbed to death Mohammed Saleem Khan.

Brabbs had been arrested with a seven-inch kitchen knife and a knuckle duster just three weeks before the killing in September.

It was also revealed that he had been jailed for almost four years in 2009 for two robberies - one of which involved a blade.

In one, he had held a knife to the throat of a young car driver and demanded his money, mobile telephone and keys in July 2008.

A month earlier, he was one of three people involved in a street mugging in which a couple were punched and kicked in York.

On September 22, he befriended Mr Khan, 36, as he delivered shower products around North Yorkshire in his hire van.

He later armed himself with a knife to rob the family man from Luton - wrongly believing he had money and a stash of cannabis.

When the driver resisted, 27-year-old Brabbs stabbed him in the throat and fled, leaving him to bleed to death, Teesside Crown Court heard. Brabbs, from Easingwold, but of no fixed abode, will have to serve a minimum term of 29 years before he will be considered for release.

He had denied murder and was three days into a trial when he changed his plea after discussions with his legal team yesterday.

His barrister, Tim Roberts, QC, said Brabbs decided over the weekend in his cell that he would not continue with his "sham" defence.

"He could not face going into the witness box and telling lies about what happened," Mr Roberts told Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC.

"He asks that I offer, in public, his apology to the family of Mohammed Khan for the atrocious act that he committed."

The court heard that he has previous convictions for other crimes such as arson, burglary, assault and carrying weapons going back to his schooldays.

Judge Bourne-Arton told him: "I have concluded, in short, that you are a thoroughly dangerous individual."