A teenager has been jailed for six years for his part in killing a man.

Jason Jackson, 18, of Albert Road, Polegate, was part of a gang that beat 40-year-old divorcee Gary Rae to death outside his flat in High Street, Hailsham, on May 29 last year.

Jackson, who was 17 at the time of the killing, had gone to Mr Rae's home with William Devall, 19, Luke Jones, 18, both of Meadow Road, Hailsham, and Ahmet Gordon, 16, of Swan Road, Hailsham, knowing they were armed with baseball bats.

They other three were convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment two months ago.

Jackson appeared at Lewes Crown Court yesterday to be sentenced for manslaughter.

He was convicted after a ten-week trial costing £1.5 million. The court heard Jackson had been present when Devall, Jones and Gordon were boasting about what they were going to do to Mr Rae.

Mr Rae, a father, was brutally attacked after being lured out of his flat by the teenagers because Devall wrongly thought his on-off girlfriend Amy Heaseman was sleeping with Mr Rae.

Devall had already been convicted of assaulting her two years before and he assaulted her twice outside Mr Rae's flat in the two days before the attack.

Mr Rae died from massive internal bleeding after Devall and Jones battered him with baseball bats. One kidney was severed from its artery and his liver was split causing him to lose half the blood in his body.

Judge Anthony Scott-Gall told Jackson he had "witnessed the most savage and brutal assault" and had joined in by kicking Mr Rae once in the head while he lay lifeless on the ground.

After the attack Jackson ran away from the scene with the others but he did not join in with the boasting and bragging about what had just happened.

He returned to the scene and told a police officer he was a concerned member of the public but he later helped get rid of the weapons which had been used to beat Mr Rae to death.

Judge Scott-Gall said: "You were convicted on the clearest of evidence of participating in this most dreadful crime. This was not spontaneous or spur of the moment.

"You surrendered yourself to the police but showed little remorse and you were concerned only for yourself and your predicament."