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A vile thug who dragged a man from a fish and chip shop and beat him to dead for just £20 has been handed a life sentence.
Christopher Hardman, 45, was with friend Anthony Miller, when Christopher Walton, stopped them in the street and asked them for £20.
Mr Miller stopped as he felt like it was a robbery, but Mr Hardman carried on and shortly after he was dragged out of Seven Acres Fish and Chip shop on Winchester Way, Bolton.
Walton then launched into a brutal attack, first punching him in the head, knocking him unconscious, Manchester Evening News reports.
Minshull Street Crown Court heard Walton then rifled through the pockets of his victim before leaving him momentarily.
As the 45-year-old began to show signs of regaining consciousness, Walton approached him and began kicking and stamping on his head repeatedly in a "ferocious" beating.
Prosecutor Tim Storrie QC claimed Walton left Mr Hardman to die in an attack that was recorded on CCTV.
Mr Storrie told the court: "It must have been clear during the course of that attack when he was conscious that he was seriously injured
"The last phase of the attack was designed to cause maximum damage to Christopher Hardman.
"It’s the prosecution case that violence was used when others were nearby in order to provide a spectacle to the associates of Mr Hardman.
"During the course of that incident, Mr Hardman must have suffered some significant degree of mental or physical injury over a prolonged period of time."
In a post mortem report, a pathologist found Mr Hardman suffered a number of blunt force injuries including a jaw fracture, a fractured eye socket, cheekbone and nose.
He also sustained massive injuries to the brain.
Walton was arrested on July 14, the day after the attack, a "no comment" interview, telling officers "that could have been f***ing anyone" when he was shown the CCTV footage.
The thug later admitted murder, and his defence lawyer Richard Littler QC described the attack as an example of "drunken thuggery."
Mr Littler said: "This was very sadly the kind of incident that unhappily happens in our streets in the evenings.
"It’s an example of drunken thuggery, it’s an example of the defendant looking for trouble and trying to start a situation.
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Sentencing him to life in prison, with a minimum of 20 years to serve, Judge Anthony Cross QC said: "Anyone who has had to watch the shocking CCTV footage of what you did to the deceased over the course of 10 minutes would struggle to understand how one human being could descend to the brutal violence that you inflicted on a defenceless man who was doing no more than going to buy some food from his local chip shop.
"The Crown are right to describe this a merciless series of stamps and blows."
"What makes your conduct even more grave is to be found in the fact that you would leave the prone body of your victim and then return to it and inflict more harm.
"I am satisfied that you were somehow demonstrating to your so-called associates how vicious you could be.
"After you had finished with him you left him for dead."
- Crime
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