TWO racist thugs are starting minimum 25-year life sentences for beating a defenceless Sri Lankan man to death.

James Rossiter, 22, and Tony Pile, 19, were both found guilty at Maidstone Crown Court of murdering Shankar Kathirgamanathan. A jury of seven men and five women returned unanimous verdicts after more than six hours of deliberation.

Before sending them down, Judge Andrew Patience QC said: “You two launched a savage and cruel attack upon someone who was unarmed and defenceless, simply because he was of another race.

“Racism is an evil which cannot be tolerated in a civilised society.”

He told them they would serve at least 25 years behind bars before being considered for parole.

Rossiter, of Loudon Path, Godinton Park, and Pile, of Baileys Field, South Ashford, launched the vicious attack on 24-year-old Mr Kathirgamanathan near the Victoria Road footbridge in Ashford on April 22 last year.

Their helpless victim was punched and kicked to the ground, before Pile kicked and stamped on his head in a frenzied assault.

Both Rossiter and Pile had violent criminal pasts, revealed to the jury after they had returned their guilty verdicts.

Pile, 19, has a far more lengthy record of offending which began at the age of 13, in 1999.

Before the murder trial he had made a total of nine court appearances for 21 separate offences. These included possession of bladed weapons, robbery, and assaulting a police officer as a juvenile.

By the time he was an adult he had committed burglary and was involved in a serious domestic criminal damage incident in January last year, when he threatened to kill his brother and set fire to the house.

He also smashed the windscreen of a police car and was given a total of four months in a young offenders' institution.

Solicitor Manjit Tesse told magistrates at the time he was 'sensitive and vulnerable'.

Rossiter, 22, has two convictions. His first, for common assault, came in 1999 after he was involved in a street fight. He was given 120 hours community service.

In 2002 he was fined £250 for using threatening, abusive or insulting words and behaviour after he turned on door staff at the M20 nightclub in Ashford after being thrown out. He had drunk 12 pints of beer.

Under the direction of Judge Andrew Patience QC that the pair serve at least 25 years behind bars, Pile will be aged 44 and Rossiter aged 47 when they are first eligible to apply for parole.