Barnes, 27, of Shelby Road, Durrington, was sentenced to a minimum term of 15 years by Judge David Rennie at Hove Crown Court on Tuesday, minutes after a jury unanimously found him guilty.

The defendant set fire to his friend John Maynard after beating him up so badly that his skull was fractured in six places and he suffered permanent brain damage.

Barnes then left Mr Maynard for dead at the victim's flat in Pier Road, Littlehampton, with injuries so serious he needed to have both legs amputated below the knee, along with three fingers from his left hand, the court heard.

After the violent attack Barnes took his victim's car and went round to another flat in Parkside Avenue, Littlehampton, into which Mr Maynard was moving over that weekend in October last year. He stole Mr Maynard's safe, containing around £30,000 and other property including a credit card, before fleeing to his home town of Oxford, where he was arrested the following evening.

Judge Rennie described Barnes' crime as "an act of unspeakable savagery and ruthless betrayal".

Wickedness

He added: "Long after you come out of prison, and that will not be for a very long time, he will continue to suffer in a way that is almost unimaginable to the rest of us. That is the real tragedy and the real wickedness of what you did."

Barnes, wearing a blue polo shirt and tracksuit bottoms as he stood in the dock, showed no emotion as Judge Rennie sentenced him and told prison escorts: "Take him down."

The jury of seven women and five men took a little over five hours to find Barnes guilty at the end of the six-day trial. He had denied attempted murder, but admitted eight other charges of theft, taking a car without permission and fraud.

Mr Maynard, who has made a remarkable recovery from the horrific injuries he suffered that night, but still faces months, if not years, of rehabilitation, gave evidence in a wheelchair on the first day of the trial and then sat in court for the rest of the proceedings.

He watched as the evidence unfolded of a night which began with happy revellers in Littlehampton preparing for the town's annual bonfire festivities, and ended with him barely alive, brain-damaged and terribly burned.

Pub crawl

Barnes, Mr Maynard and the victim's former girlfriend Wendy "Charlie" Vaughan went on a pub crawl on that Saturday night, October 27, after the two men had done two jobs for Mr Maynard's removals firm.

Mr Maynard had been reluctant to have Barnes stay at his flat the previous night, after the defendant had phoned him to say he had split up with his wife, Melissa, and had nowhere to stay. He relented, but said Barnes would have to find somewhere else to sleep on the Saturday night.

The court heard that after meeting up at the Cob and Pen in Surrey Street, the three friends then went drinking at two or three other town centre pubs before ending up at the CoCo Lounge.

Miss Vaughan left first, at about 12.30am, possibly upset because Mr Maynard had been chatting to two other women, and had rebuffed her suggestion that they should get back together again.

Mr Maynard, who said he had been upset by the conversation he had with Miss Vaughan, left about an hour later, and made three phone calls to apologise to her, but never got through. CCTV footage of him making his way home down Clifton Road was the last image of him walking.

Barnes was the last to leave the club, at about 2.40am and was also filmed walking down Clifton Road.

Set on fire

He managed to get into the second floor flat where Mr Maynard was sleeping on the floor, having moved most of his furniture and belongings into his new home at Parkside Avenue. Barnes then viciously beat up his friend and demanded money. Before leaving he set Mr Maynard on fire.

Neighbours living below heard the sound of banging over the space of about an hour in the early hours of that morning, and some swearing.

After taking Mr Maynard's car and stealing the safe and other property from the Parkside Avenue flat, Barnes fled to Oxford, where he had grown up. His description and the car registration number had been circulated to police there, and he was arrested the following evening after an officer saw the car and then Barnes.

He had used Mr Maynard's credit card to draw out £450 cash and to buy other items including food, clothing and a music CD, and used the card and a bank statement to set up a new mobile phone account in Mr Maynard's name, effectively stealing his identity, too, said Richard Barton, prosecuting.

With the new phone, and Mr Maynard's phone, he made a series of calls to escort agencies and massage parlours.

Back in Littlehampton, Mr Maynard was discovered hours after the attack by police investigating a break in at the Parkside Avenue flat. He was taken to Worthing Hospital, where a consultant anaesthetist who examined him did not expect him to survive.

His head injuries were consistent with someone falling onto concrete from several stories high, or with a crash victim hitting the road surface at 60-70 miles per hour. The 40 per cent burns to his body, including 20 per cent full-thickness burns through every layer of skin, would, like the head injuries, have been enough, separately, to kill him.

"Ruthless"

Judge Rennie told Barnes: "On an October night last year, in an act of unspeakable savagery, and ruthless betrayal, you decided to kill the man who had been a close friend to you, a man who had given you money when you needed it, a man who gave you employment when he could, who paid for your wedding, agreed to be your best man and helped to furnish your home.

"My interpretation of what lay behind these truly shocking and sickening events is that Mr Maynard finally realised that you weren't the try and loyal friend he must have believed you were. There came a time when he realised that you were taking advantage of him.

"Over that weekend he made it clear that he wouldn't be offering you much more work or any more work, because he had a new partner, who had bought into his business. There wouldn't have been much room for a third person — namely you."

Barnes, said the judge, had resolved to take the money in Mr Maynard's safe, which he had carried into the Parkside Avenue flat, and wanted the rest of his savings.

"Secondly, you resolved to punish him, in your terrible rage, for what you regarded as his betrayal. His loyalty, generosity and money had effectively been switched off, and you set about trying to ensure that he paid the ultimate price — namely with his life."

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