TWO killers are facing life behind bars after a drug addict was stabbed to death for the sake of £80.

Drug supplier Joseph Tingle, 23, was yesterday found guilty of the murder of heroin user Richard Petty, 34, after a seven-day trial at Teesside Crown Court.

Tingle's lodger and fellow dealer Mark "Peao" Pearson, 28, had admitted murder at an earlier hearing, and they will now both be sentenced next month.

Pearson stabbed former convict Mr Petty eight times in the lounge of the flat he shared in Melsonby Court, Billingham, near Stockton, on the afternoon of March 25.

A day earlier, Mr Petty had "taxed" £80 from Mark Fairweather - a street dealer who sold heroin around his neighbourhood for friends Pearson and Tingle.

The jury decided that the friends plotted to take revenge on Mr Petty and went to his seventh-floor town centre flat to confront him about the theft of their cash.

Pearson armed himself with a 12in kitchen knife, which he hid in a homemade scabbard up his sweatshirt sleeve as he and Tingle walked from their home in Denby Road.

Tingle claimed throughout his police interviews and his trial that he did not know his housemate had the knife, and that he would not have gone along if he had.

He said even though Pearson was threatening to "stab him up" as they walked across town, he did not take him seriously because he was "wrecked".

The court heard that the friends drank heavily the previous evening and took a cocktail of heroin, crack cocaine and methadone as they watched a football match.

Police believe the killers would have confronted Mr Petty that night, when Mr Fairweather told them of the "taxing", but they were probably too intoxicated.

Pearson was said to have downed half a litre bottle of vodka and several cans of lager the next morning as he plotted the revenge mission while Tingle slept.

Tingle claimed he did not plan anything because he was woken at 1.40pm by Pearson and they set off within 20 minutes to get their money back from Mr Petty.

He told police they had gone "just to confront" Mr Petty, and said: "I thought Peao was going to slap him or something - not f***ing stab him. I didn't expect him to go that far."

Police believe that closed circuit television pictures from the block of flats showed Tingle played a much more active role in seeking out Mr Petty than he was prepared to admit.

The security film showed Tingle trying to get access to the tower block by asking another tenant to open the front door, while Pearson is seen barely able to bend his arm because of the knife.

Asked in interview what part he played in the killing, Tingle replied: "I'm no murderer... it's Peao you want for this one. I didn't know anything like that was going to happen."

Following yesterday afternoon's verdict, Detective Inspector Andy Greenwood, of Cleveland Police, said: "This was a tragic loss of life over what would appear to be the theft of £80."

Tingle was not in court as the jury returned after three hours of deliberating, as he was not allowed to leave Holme House Prison yesterday because of the jail warders' strike.

The murderers will have their life-sentence tariffs set when they are sentenced by the Recorder of Middlesbrough, Judge Peter Fox, on September 27.