A NETHERTON man and his nephew have been told they must stay behind bars for a total of 38 years after they battered a man to death at a flat in Oldbury.

Derek Brennan and his nephew Daman Sehra punched and kicked Amjad Khan about the head, stamped repeatedly on his face and hit him with a bottle and a hard child's toy.

The vicious attack at the home of Sehra's mother and the sister of Brennan continued even as she was making a 999 call to alert the emergency services.

"This was an appalling, unprovoked and gratuitous assault," Judge Michael Chambers QC told 23 year old Sehra and Brennan at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

"The 999 call was being made while the attack continued and that is a chilling representation of what you did that will remain with me for a long time," added the Judge.

He said Sehra and 33-year-old Brennan were men with a history of violent offending and it was clear they had both been drinking heavily before they went to the flat in Yardley Close, Bristnall Fields.

Mr Khan (pictured below) had arrived at the flat only moments earlier and he was subjected to what the Judge described as a "brutal and sustained attack."

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The Judge jailed both men for life for the murderous attack and told Sehra he must spend a minimum of 20 years in custody while Brennan must remain behind bars for 18 years.

The two men had denied murder but they were convicted by a jury at the end of their trial with Sehra admitting a charge of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

Sehra further admitted burglary at the Station Hotel in Dudley, affray, threatening a man with a blade in a nearby fast food restaurant, assaulting a police officer and damaging property at Oldbury Police Station.

The trial had been told that police officers found Mr Khan lying in a pool of blood after rushing to the flat and he was taken to hospital but died five days later.

He had tried to shake hands with the pair but was set upon by the men who escaped from the flat through a window and onto a roof.

Sehra, of no fixed address, had maintained he went berserk and attacked Mr Khan because he had offered his mother drugs for sexual favours.

Brennan, of Halesowen Road, Netherton stressed to police officers he had gone out through the window because he realised he would be blamed for what had taken place.

In a victim impact statement Tina Khan, the sister of the dead man, said lives of the family had been badly affected by the murder.

She said his death had been a profound loss to all who knew and loved him, it had caused them great pain and they had been robbed of their "peace of mind."

Sehra and Brennan showed no reaction as they were sentenced.

The Judge said Mr Khan offered the defendants friendship and goodwill when he got to the flat but Sehra rushed at him and that prompted the terrible attack.