William Jackson jailed for killing Walter Littlejohn in Glasgow
A man who killed his friend while awaiting sentence for an earlier attack on him has been jailed for six years.
William Jackson, 51, admitted attacking 56-year-old Walter Littlejohn at his flat in Govanhill, Glasgow, in July.
The High Court in Glasgow heard how Mr Littlejohn had made a "fairly neutral" remark about Jackson's mother which sparked the fatal assault.
Jackson was charged with murder but had a guilty plea accepted to the reduced charge of culpable homicide.
Jailing him, judge Lord Bannatyne told Jackson: "This appears to have been a completely senseless and irrational attack."
Jackson will also be supervised for a further three years on his release.
The court previously heard that days before the killing Jackson spoke to a nurse, claiming Mr Littlejohn was making him upset and that he wanted to "punch him all the time".
The following day, he was seen by a psychiatrist, and although he described himself as "angry", the doctor had no further concerns about him.
This was despite Jackson already being on bail for assaulting Mr Littlejohn in July 2013.
The court was told that Jackson called an ambulance on 1 August, claiming he had found Mr Littlejohn lying dead in a chair.
A paramedic arrived and found Mr Littlejohn had passed away, but saw "nothing obviously suspicious".
Jackson told police that Mr Littlejohn had come to his door that day already injured.
He said he later found his friend had stopped breathing and had called for help.
Jackson denied at that time that he had fought with Mr Littlejohn. He instead claimed Mr Littlejohn had earlier been involved in a "handbags" fight with another person.
A post-mortem examination found that Mr Littlejohn had been assaulted. He was found to have bleeding in his skull, rib fractures, injuries to his bowel and liver, and bruising.
It was also found he had defensive-type injuries.
Jackson later changed his position and admitted Mr Littlejohn had stayed at his flat between 31 July and 1 August.
Officers then took a pair of trainers from Jackson's flat as they continued to probe the death.
One of them was found to have Mr Littlejohn's blood on it while the pattern on the sole matched bruising on the victim's chest.
A piece of the dead man's hearing aid was discovered in a bin and a pool of blood was seen under a couch.
It is thought Mr Littlejohn was beaten to death in Jackson's living room.