A HEROIN addict who stabbed a ''defenceless'' North-East student to death in a bungled burglary was today jailed for a minimum of 26 years.

Prolific burglar Gareth Brear, 31, pleaded guilty at Leeds Crown Court to the murder of 20-year-old Joe Cook in his student accommodation in Leeds in August last year.

The court heard how Brear broke into the property on Ebberston Terrace, in the Hyde Park area of the city, and stabbed Mr Cook 15 times with a kitchen knife before ransacking the house and stealing a BMX bike.

Police found the student, from Newcastle, the following day, lying on his bed in his first-floor bedroom.

Today, friends and family of Mr Cook sobbed in the public gallery as the details of his murder were outlined.

A moving statement from his parents, Lesley and Nick Cook, was read to the court.

The couple said: ''Joe was not in the wrong place, at the wrong time. He was in the right place, in his bed, in his room, in his student house. He should have been safe.

''Joe never knew violence, he had never been in a fight, Joe could offer no provocation, he had no defence.

''Our gentle Joe had no hope against a murderer determined to stab him to death."