A man who vowed "to make St Helens proud" before stabbing another man in the neck was found guilty of murder.
Thomas Brown turned his bedroom into a bloodbath when he knifed 33-year-old Lee Andrew in his right jugular vein.
Photos showed the horrific scene Andrew fled as he ran across the road to a YMCA reception in a forlorn bid to get help.
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Career criminal Brown was seen to "nonchalantly" walk away - his hands covered in blood - as his victim was dying in the street.
After he was arrested, the 42-year-old drug addict told police: "The beast got dealt with and it was self-defence."
He suggested Andrew was bullying him and "came at him" with a knife, so he grabbed a second knife to defend himself.
Brown even claimed "more should have been done" for Andrew and questioned why YMCA staff on night duty didn't provide first aid.
But a jury took just two hours of deliberation to unanimously find him guilty of murder, after a six-day trial at Liverpool Crown Court.
Brown showed no emotion in the dock when the verdict was returned, while members of Andrew's grieving family sobbed.
Mr Justice Martin Spencer said he would proceed straight to sentence and jailed Brown for life with a minimum of 18 years.
Brown had previous convictions for burglary, theft, shoplifting, criminal damage, having an article with a blade in public - half a pair of scissors - and supplying heroin and crack cocaine.
Andrew's criminal record featured harassment, threatening behaviour, burglary, shoplifting and theft.
The jury was told Merseyside Police had received information that Andrew was involved in "knifepoint street robberies, which were drug related" and was "drug taxing" Thomas Brown and "he was a bully".
However, when giving evidence, Brown downplayed comments he made about Andrew being a bully, saying that wasn't always the case, and denied ever wanting to harm or kill him.
The court heard both men were at Brown's YMCA flat in North Road, when Brown went out to "score" drugs, at around 6.18pm
Brown said he had £10 from Andrew to "score" him "two white" - two £5 bags of crack - but also had to find £10 to buy heroin for himself, meaning he'd have to "beg, borrow or steal".
David McLachlan, QC, prosecuting, said Brown met associate James Allen, they bought drugs, and then they headed to Mr Allen's house.
There it was said Brown started acting "strangely", gave Mr Allen a hug - which he'd never done before - and said he was "going to do something to make St Helens proud".
Mr McLachlan said: "When Mr Allen asked 'what do you mean?', Tommy Brown said 'it's nothing mate, don't worry about it'.
"The prosecution case is that what he was going to do 'to make St Helens proud' was kill Lee Andrew."
Arriving back at his flat at around 10.45pm, Brown said he walked into his bedroom to find Andrew angry that it had taken him so long to get his drugs.
He claimed that he spotted two of his kitchen knives in the room - one on a table and another that Andrew moved onto the bed - before Andrew took crack.
CCTV footage showed that before the stabbing Brown's kitchen light was turned on for eight seconds and a photo showed a kitchen drawer left open.
Prosecutors suggested Brown had in fact gone to the kitchen and got two knives, but when confronted with this evidence at trial, Brown explained for the first time that he gone to the kitchen to get foil for his heroin.
He said when he returned to his bedroom and indicated they should leave, Andrew "flipped and came at me", wielding a knife.
Brown said he replied "f*** off Lee" and gave him a two-handed push, then Andrew grabbed his left arm, and he was "jerked" forwards.
He told the jury he grabbed the other knife on the table with his right hand and "just brought it round", before ending up "right on top of the kid".
Brown said he "felt the knife connect", but hadn't intended to stab Andrew and didn't realise until he got around the corner and saw his hands "caked" in blood that the situation was "bad".
Commenting on CCTV footage that showed him leaving, he said: "It looks like I'm walking out not giving a s***, but that's certainly not the case. Me head had fell off."
Andrew was taken to Whiston Hospital by ambulance, but died a short time later.
Brown went to a friend's home and told him: "Listen, I think I'm going away for a while."
After he was arrested in Parr Street in the early hours of August 3, Brown told a detention officer he was not happy being in custody.
The detention officer said the matter needed to be investigated and "that it is just the nature of the beast".
Brown replied: "The beast got dealt with and it was self-defence."
When interviewed, he gave a prepared statement saying Andrew had been "bullying" him for months and he was "intimidated" by him, Andrew attacked him with a knife, and he stabbed him once in self-defence.
However, Brown would tell the jury it wasn't true Andrew had bullied him for months, which was "harsh", but he did act in self-defence.
Andrew Ford, QC, defending, asked why he picked up the knife.
He said "I was just scared, I just reacted", adding: "It's something I wish I never done, I wish it never happened, but unfortunately for me, it has."
Asked by Mr McLachlan "did you make St Helens proud that night?" he replied "are you being ridiculous?" then added: "Certainly not."
Mr McLachlan asked him: "Did you deal with the beast?"
Brown said: "That's a word I did say. That's something... I shouldn't have said that. I was angry, upset, a mixture of emotions."
Mr McLachlan suggested there was a "simple reason" the knives got from the kitchen to the bedroom, adding: "You took them there."
The QC said: "You had to make St Helens proud didn't you Mr Brown?"
Brown answered: "Who would be proud of this? No one would be proud of it. No one should be proud of it. If I am at any point proud then life me off, but it's not the case."
However, Mr Justice Spencer accepted the evidence of Mr Allen that Brown had said he was going to make St Helens proud.
The High Court judge said he was satisfied Brown had intended to kill Andrew and that it was a "premeditated" attack.
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