A thug who brutally murdered his neighbour has been jailed for a minimum 21 years.
Nicholas Henry smacked Daniel Greer, 33, with a shovel and stabbed him nine times during the attack in a garden in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire on October 17 2020.
The 45 year-old then dragged Daniel's body back into the victim's home where his father made the grim discovery two days later.
Henry was today and jailed for life at the High Court in Glasgow by judge Lord Scott. He had been convicted of murder following a trial in September.
It emerged Henry had previously been jailed for 12 years for 2011 for trying to kill a man including almost severing his hand.
The murder trial had heard from another neighbour of the men, who had seen Henry assaulting Daniel on the day of the murder.
Jennifer Watterson told jurors: "I saw Nicholas in my garden with Daniel, who had his hand on his head saying 'leave me, leave me’. Nicholas was saying: 'Get up you f*****g b*****d'."
The witness said she then saw the killer strike Daniel with a shovel and stamp on him. She watched Henry drag the victim away before she closed her blinds. The thug went on to ditch the knife in a nearby field.
Lynsey Mulherron - whose sister was in a relationship with Henry at the time - later chatted to him about Daniel.
Sick Henry told her: "Don't worry, you will not be seeing him again, he is gone."
In his closing speech, prosecutor Euan Cameron said Henry had repeatedly knifed Daniel on the neck, chest, stomach and back. The victim also suffered multiple bruises and a bleed to the brain.
Mr Cameron said: "He struck him with such a force that the knife left a notch in one of his ribs and cut open a vein in his liver.
"Henry took him back to his home where he left him to bleed to death."
In his evidence, Henry denied murder and claimed he had been defending himself against an allegedly armed Daniel.
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