A man has been jailed for trying to cover up for his brother after a father-of-two was brutally murdered.

Aaron Devall, 32, hid baseball bats used by a teenage gang to beat Gary Rae to death outside his Hailsham flat last year.

His brother William Devall, 19, and Luke Jones, 18, were jailed for life last week for the murder, along with Ahmet Gordon, 17, who lured Mr Rae to his death.

Jason Jackson, 19, who was convicted of manslaughter, will be sentenced on July 7.

Devall, of The Diplocks, Hailsham, collected the bats after the killing along with clothes worn by his brother.

He hid them in a bid to prevent detectives hunting Mr Rae's killers from linking them to his brother. They were never recovered.

Witnesses said when he heard what his brother had done, Aaron told them: "I always thought that Will would kill somebody one day."

He later admitted attempting to pervert the course of justice and appeared at Lewes Crown Court for sentence yesterday.

He also admitted conspiracy to supply heroin to himself while on remand at Lewes Prison.

His partner Emma Courtney, 28, also of The Diplocks, Hailsham, was given two years for supplying the drug to him.

Richard Barton, prosecuting, said prison staff monitored calls between Devall and Courtney.

He pressured her into smuggling £15 worth of heroin into the prison in her bra.

The drug was found when she was searched during a visit to Devall on July 12 last year.

Jeremy Wainwright, defending, said Devall, a landscape gardener, had admitted attempting to pervert the course of justice almost as soon as he was arrested the day after Mr Rae died on May 29 last year.

Mr Wainwright said: "He had no prior knowledge of what was going to take place before Mr Rae died.

"When he discovered that his brother was in serious trouble, he tried to help him, out of a misguided sense of family duty."

Jennifer Gray, defending Courtney, said: "She is addicted to heroin and came under a great deal of pressure from both inside and outside the prison to take the drug in."

Judge Anthony Scott-Gall jailed Devall for a total of four-and-a-half years and Courtney for two years.

He told Devall: "Vital to the investigation was to obtain the weapons that were used.

"I accept that you felt some misguided loyalty towards your brother but the law requires citizens to help the police within the law as opposed to outside it."