A PARANOID schizophrenic who savagely kicked and punched a man to death following a drinking session in a Bacup pub has been jailed for life.

Philip Rhodes, 35, of Cog Lane, Burnley killed Gary Fletcher after accusing the 41-year-old of giving evidence against him in a trial.

Rhodes became aggressive following a heavy drinking session in the Wellington pub in Bacup on April 1 this year when he saw Fletcher and two other men talking.

Fletcher later visited Rhodes at a flat in Hammerton Green, Bacup, where Rhodes attacked him, punching and kicking him until he was dead.

He later tried to cover up the crime by wrapping the body in sheets, trying to borrow a car to dispose of the body and throwing Fletcher's wallet in the river to try to conceal his identity.

Fletcher's body was found two days later after the owner of the flat a Mr Joseph Jones, Rhodes' uncle, reported it to the police and Rhodes was arrested.

Rhodes denied murder but pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Preston Crown Court heard that Rhodes was a paranoid schizophrenic with a history of violent offences including two convictions for wounding with intent.

In 1996 he was jailed for four years after beating up his then girlfriend with a piece of wood so violently that she required surgery.

Following his arrest Rhodes wrote to his solicitor expressing regret for what he had done. In an extract read to the court he wrote: "I feel so bad because I know I am responsible. I do not feel human any more. The hardest thing is living with what I have done."

Sentencing Rhodes to life imprisonment the judge Mr Justice Douglas Brown said: "You have pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility. What you did was to kill Gary Fletcher brutally and savagely.

"Were it not for the state of your mental health, you would have no answer to a charge of murder. Psychiatric evidence is compelling. You are suffering from a mental disorder from which you continue to suffer and for which you require treatment."

He recommended Rhodes serve a minimum of at least 10 years.

Following the case Detective Inspector Steve Brunskill said: "The sentence means that the public will remain safe from this violent individual and although that can be no consolation to Gary Fletcher's family it must go some way to help them come to terms with his death."