TWO thugs kicked a North-East man to death then sneered at his wife down the telephone: "Your husband won't be coming home."

Doting father Robin Chard was attacked by Joseph Mee and Christopher Smith as he returned from a night out.

Mee, 27, later showed friends how he posed like rugby star Jonny Wilkinson - with bent knees and clasped hands - before kicking Mr Chard's head like a ball.

The killers, who were jailed for life yesterday after admitting murder, also took the father-of-two's mobile phone, watch, jacket and £30 cash.

Smith told friends how he taunted his innocent victim's wife, Angela, when she rang his phone, because she was worried he had not returned home.

Both also said they were high on a cocktail of amphetamines, cannabis, cider and lager when they battered Mr Chard to death.

They then went to Smith's house and put on the Queen song Bohemian Rhapsody, laughing as they constantly replayed the line: "Mama, just killed a man."

Mee, now 28, from Whitemere Gardens, and Smith, 24, of Pankhurst Gardens, both Wardley, Gateshead, initially denied the murder.

But faced with evidence from closed-circuit TV cameras and forensic clues, they admitted their guilt.

Toby Hedworth, prosecuting, told Newcastle Crown Court how Mr Chard, 47, a kitchen designer, was attacked after a night out in Newcastle on April 23.

Mee and Smith were fired up following an earlier fight in Gateshead and followed Mr Chard home from Heworth Metro station.

They then repeatedly punched, kicked and stamped on his head and chest before dragging his body into a ditch and robbing him.

At one stage, during the early hours when Mrs Chard was worried about her husband, she rang his mobile phone and a stranger answered before the line went dead.

A witness who knew the pair told police Smith had answered and said: "Your husband's not coming home."

A post-mortem examination found that Mr Chard, who had married his wife at 18, died from asphyxiation, most likely caused by being held face down in mud.

His body was found by a neighbour the following morning, on wasteland 400 yards from his home in Heworth, Gateshead.

Mr Hedworth told the court: "Given the claim that their intention was not robbery, then the only reason to attack a peaceable man utterly gratuitously was for no other reason than aggression and violence.

"Mr Chard was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time as he made his way home.

"He was brutally kicked, stamped upon and killed."

Jobless Smith was on bail for assaulting his former girlfriend when he murdered Mr Chard, the court was told.

Mee, who looked after his sick mother, had been cautioned by police for shooting a girl with an air rifle just before the murder.

Both were sentenced to life imprisonment, with Smith told he would serve a minimum of 17 years and Mee 15 years.

Judge John Milford told Smith: "It is clear to me that this was an attack on an innocent middle-aged man for no better reason than you wanted to hurt someone.

"He was simply picked at random and subjected to the most terrible beating."

Speaking outside Newcastle Crown Court, Mr Chard's widow Angela, 47, said: "The sentence is never going to be long enough."

Flanked by her son, Garry, and daughter, Joanne, she added: "We are getting a life sentence. We have got to live the rest of our lives without him."

Detective Superintendent Steve Wade, who led the investigation, said: "This case ranks as one of the worst cases I have ever dealt with as a senior investigating officer.

"Mr Chard had done nothing wrong. He had simply been walking home, minding his own business, when he was kicked and beaten to death in a savage attack."