A KILLER was yesterday jailed for six-and-a-half years after being branded a liar by a judge who refused to accept the account he gave during his trial.

Christopher Morgan was told he had “done himself no favours” by giving false accounts to the police after his arrest and making up evidence in court.

Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, said he rejected Morgan's version of what happened when he attacked his stepfather's landlord at his home in April.

Morgan, 24, punched, kicked and stamped on 43-year-old Jonathan Gilbert and left him unconscious in his lounge. He died in hospital ten days later.

The unemployed crisp factory worker had gone to the house in Sycamore Gardens, Crook, County Durham, to remonstrate about an earlier insult.

Teesside Crown Court heard during a five-day trial that alcoholic father-of-two Mr Gilbert called him a “half-breed” a week earlier.

Morgan, of Thornfield Road, Consett, County Durham, was cleared of murder but was found guilty of manslaughter earlier this month.

He claimed he stamped on his victim because his stepfather, David Pinder, tried to intervene in the row and he feared he would be hit.

Morgan told the jury he simply wanted to keep Mr Gilbert on the floor with his foot while he dealt with what he saw as a threat from Mr Pinder.

Judge Bourne-Arton told the killer today, Monday, October 22): “I do not accept for one moment that your stepfather, Mr Pinder, had anything to do with this.

“The jury did not believe you had to defend yourself, I certainly do not accept that and it is unbecoming of you that you put that account forward.

“It is true you handed yourself into the police, but you did yourself no favours at all by not accepting full responsibility for that which you did, initially.”

Morgan gave himself up when he saw the house cordoned off hours later, but denied stamping on Mr Gilbert during the assault.

His barrister, Jamie Hill, QC, said he now accepts the full extent of the violence, but is embarrassed about using his feet during the April 20 attack.

Mr Hill said: “The consequences of his actions were unintended and unintentional but he does understand the damage he has done to the victim and his family.”

The judge told Morgan: “Nothing I can do by way of sentence can now even begin to compensate his family and his many friends for their loss.

“You will have to spend the rest of your life in the knowledge that you caused the death of your friend, but they will have all their lives without him.”

During the trial, Morgan described Mr Gilbert as a "good friend" and told how he had downed cider, lager and vodka and taken amphetamine and mephedrone, and was “still out of it” when arrested next day.