A loving dad murdered by his son after trying to save him from a pub fight had repeatedly asked him to stop drinking so much.
Neil Farrington was put in a coma from which he never woke up in a "ferocious, brutal and totally unforgiving" street attack.
The 51-year-old was seemingly unconscious, as a younger man was seen "volleying" him and yelling: "I will f***ing kill you".
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When police arrived, they found the attacker still kicking his victim in the head and shouting: "What do you think about that?"
But officers were stunned to discover the culprit was 28-year-old Neil Badrock - Mr Farrington's own son.
A shocking trial heard the dad had done everything he could to stop Badrock becoming involved in drunken violence, both that night and in the past.
Tragically, his advice fell on deaf ears and, when the caring parent tried to make sure his son was safe, he was the one who never returned home.
Badrock, of Kenbury Close, Kirkby, admitted manslaughter but denied murder, claiming he had never intended to cause his father serious harm.
The trial heard how the former Ruffwood Secondary pupil, who left school at 16, was employed as a maintenance worker at a David Lloyd gym.
He had no previous convictions or cautions, but did seemingly have an issue with alcohol, leading to tension between him and his doting dad.
On Monday, May 17 last year - when pubs reopened after lockdown ended - he went out with one intention, texting a friend: "I've just worked 12 days straight, so I'm getting smashed today."
Liverpool Crown Court heard he started drinking at 1pm and his 10-hour "pub crawl" took him to the Mainbrace in Kirkby, where he got "very drunk".
A turning point came shortly after 6pm, when Badrock fell out with a man who was playing snooker, and started texting his dad about the argument.
A barmaid noticed the row, when there were "offers to go outside to sort things out", which left Badrock "extremely worked up and angry".
In one hot-headed text, he told his dad: "I will bite his f***ing windpipe out if I have to."
He added: "Not having some b***end ask me out, I will f***ing smash his little head in if I have to, I’m not soft."
Badrock repeated: "I will smash his head in if I have to."
Clearly concerned, Mr Farrington advised his son: "It's all macho bulls***. Just get off home or elsewhere - use your loaf, it ain't worth it lad."
However, Badrock responded saying he would "smash the man's head in" and by calling him a "gobs****".
His dad replied: "Think you need to go home, you sound half bevvied and you're vulnerable then - got too much to lose lad."
He would later tell the jury he didn't want to go home because "I was enjoying myself".
Shortly after 6.30pm, the father and son spoke on the phone for about 10 minutes.
Mr Farrington was obviously so worried, he left his home and took a bus down to the Mainbrace, to try and reason with his son face-to-face.
When giving evidence, Badrock described his childhood as happy.
He explained how his parents split up when he was young and when they did, he lived with his mum.
But he went on holidays with his dad to destinations including New York, Madrid and Munich, and said they had "loads of good memories".
Badrock told the jury: "I would actually say I didn't look at him as a father, I seen him as a best mate at times."
The court heard the pair were also passionate Liverpool FC fans and sometimes went to games together.
However, the court heard there could be some friction between them, as they had similar personalities, and Mr Farrington would offer advice to his son, which he didn't always take - including about his level of drinking.
Benjamin Myers, QC, defending, asked his client: "Was he concerned that you were going out and drinking too much?"
Badrock said: "He was yeah, he thought I was drinking too much."
Mr Myers asked: "How did you react?"
Badrock replied: "I was obviously p***ed off because I thought 'I work all of the time and if I want to go out and have a drink I will have a drink'."
The jury also heard of an occasion when they had argued on an evening out, when Mr Farrington decided to call it a night, and wanted Badrock to come home too, rather than stay out alone.
Badrock said that incident was blown out of proportion, if they had ever fallen out it was always resolved, and denied he'd ever had a physical confrontation with his dad, or hit him before.
Mr Myers said: "Whatever the relationship was between you and your father, how did you feel about your father when you came to May 17?"
"Pretty good," Badrock replied, explaining that it felt "shocking" to be on trial for his dad's murder, because "he's not here no more".
Mr Myers said: "Whose fault is that?"
"Mine," Badrock replied, adding that it made him feel "disgusting".
Asked how he felt to have admitted the manslaughter of his dad, he said: "Madness... I can't put it into words at the moment how I am feeling. Don't think I don't sit here every night… I have got to live with this for the rest of my life and I'm gutted he’s not here no more."
He added: "I loved him."
When questioned over CCTV footage of him in the Mainbrace, Badrock said he hadn't thought it at the time, but accepted he may have come across as being aggressive, because that day alcohol "did cloud my judgement".
At one point the "very drunk" son ordered two pints of Strongbow, two Jager bombs, two Southern Comfort with lemonades and a sambuca, all at the same time.
Despite the conversation they'd had over text, Badrock said he was surprised when his dad arrived at the Bolton Avenue pub.
Any attempts Mr Farrington made to calm his son down, or to get him to leave without causing a further scene, were unsuccessful.
A barmaid asked Badrock to leave after he loudly told his dad to "f*** off", shortly after 11pm. A few minutes later, his dad followed after him.
Badrock told the jury: "I realised I had had a ridiculous amount to drink and I just wanted to go home and sleep it off."
He said it was his plan to go home and that he hadn't waited for his dad when he shouted to him and caught up with him on Kirkby Row, close to its junction with Whitefield Drive.
Badrock said his dad seemed "p***ed off" with him, because "I was so gone with the alcohol he couldn't really have a proper conversation with me", and because he'd ignored his advice to go home earlier.
Kirkby Row resident Rebecca Alger, who looked out of her window and saw two men arguing, recalled Mr Farrington telling his son "I'm f***ing sick of it, I've put up with it for 20 years", before pushing him in the chest and going to walk away.
Badrock said he didn't remember that being said, adding: "I just remember him coming towards me and grabbing me by the throat."
This claim that Mr Farrington initiated the violence wasn't supported by the evidence of Ms Alger, any of the other witnesses, or the CCTV.
Badrock later suggested marks on his throat, shown on photographs after his arrest, were from where his dad had grabbed him, and he'd struggled to breathe.
Whatever the truth of that claim, nothing could justify how, after headbutting his dad, witnesses saw him lifting his victim's head up and "bashing" it down on the pavement, before "volleying" him in the head with repeated kicks, punching and stamping on him.
When cross-examined by Guy Gozem, QC, prosecuting, about the texts he'd sent his dad, Badrock said: "I can't for the life of me explain why I was that angry. All I can say is that alcohol took over me that day."
He agreed his dad was advising him to go home and he ignored that advice, and accepted his father had been "concerned" about him, but said he didn't recognise it that night, because "I was that gone".
Badrock conceded his dad must have come to the pub to check he was okay, and repeated his advice that he go home when he got there, but then they'd stayed and had a drink together.
Mr Gozem said: "He plainly loved you. That’s why he turned up, isn’t it?"
"Yes," Badrock said.
The prosecutor continued: "And you weren't for going?"
"No," he replied, before confessing that he got angry with him about it.
Addressing what happened when his dad followed after him, he told the jury: "He should have just let me go home and sleep it off."
He added: "I'm not saying it was his fault but he should have just let me go home."
Mr Gozem asked whether it ever occurred to him that his dad followed him to ensure he got home safely, which Badrock now agreed may have been the case.
However, Badrock claimed after he headbutted his dad out of "anger", he had an experience similar to a "blackout", and "I just didn't realise what I was doing."
He earlier said: "I feel sick… I have now lost a dad and it is devastating. It is devastating what I done. I can't believe I have done that to my own dad."
Badrock told the jury he didn't realise his dad was out cold when he repeatedly punched and kicked him because he was "raging" and had "lost control".
In an audacious claim, he even suggested he was in fear of his dad getting up after the headbutt, which led Mr Gozem to ask why he didn't kneel down and check on his condition.
Badrock responded: "Well, hindsight is a wonderful thing isn't it and if I could go back and change what I done I would in a heartbeat… I'm absolutely devastated by what happened."
He told the jury: "I didn’t realise the attack was that vicious until I was in the police station and the following day they showed me photographs of his injuries."
Badrock said: "From the minute I got to the police station, all I was saying was, I was asking about him, 'is he okay?'. If I set out to kill my own father, why would I be in the police station asking those questions. I wouldn’t give a f*** would I?"
Mr Farrington's injuries were horrific. Jurors were shown two photos of what he looked like when he was admitted to hospital, with "significant head trauma"; extensive facial and scalp swelling and bruising; bleeding inside the skull; brain bruising and swelling; and a fracture of the skull.
He spent five weeks fighting for his life, during which time his son was charged with attempted murder.
Tragically, that charge was amended to murder when he died in hospital on June 21, leaving friends, family and work colleagues bereft.
His son said: "I still to this day, eight/nine months later, can't explain what was going through my head at the time. I have got no words for what happened."
Badrock may not have had a word for what happened, but the day beforehand, his dad's grieving brother clearly did.
Jimmy Farrington explained what a good dad his brother was, and how he'd done everything for his son, before becoming visibly upset.
Turning to the dock, he started calling his nephew a "coward", then accused him of "smirking".
Shocked jurors looked on as Badrock could be heard to respond: "You are letting yourself down Jimmy."
In reality, the only person who had let himself down in that courtroom was the man sitting in the dock - a man who let his entire family down, and a man the jury found guilty of murder.
On Wednesday morning, that man will learn how many years he must spend sitting in a jail cell, thinking about the night he killed his dad.
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