Life for the boy 'football' killers

Three schoolboys who kicked a mentally ill man to death after a row in a supermarket were locked up for life today.

Scott Osborne, 30, suffered fatal head injuries after he was beaten and kicked "like a football" by the teenagers outside a store in Lewisham.

One of his killers "jumped up and down" on his stomach.

The thugs, all then pupils at the same school, left Mr Osborne unconscious on the pavement. He was taken to hospital but pronounced dead shortly after arrival.

Judge Brian Barker QC ordered they each serve at least nine years. One of them swore and punched the Perspex screen of the dock after sentence.

He and another defendant had to be restrained by security guards before they were led away. They were convicted by an Old Bailey jury of murder.