THIS is the face of a young man who descended into the squalid world of drug dealing - and it cost him his life.

Alistair Maddison was stabbed to death at 3am one morning in the Luton area of Chatham after a drug deal went wrong. He was just 31.

After two men were jailed by a judge at Maidstone Crown Court for killing Mr Maddison, a Kent police chief spoke about the tragedy.

Det Insp Mike Morgan said: “This tragic waste of a young man’s life is a reflection of the death, pain and misery caused by drugs and serves as a timely reminder of the heartache that drugs can bring.”

One of the men who killed Mr Maddison, 26-year-old drug addict Alan Sykes, was jailed for life for the murder.

Setting a minimum sentence of 20 years, a judge told Sykes he had shown no remorse but a “chilling detachment” from the killing.

Sykes, who, denied murder but was convicted at the end of a three-week trial, admitted robbery.

Father-of-six Trevor Brown, 40, was given an indeterminate prison sentence after he was acquitted of murder but convicted of manslaughter. He denied the charges, as well as robbery, but was found guilty.

Judge Paul Worsley said Brown would not be considered for parole until he had served a minimum of five years, less almost a year he had spent on remand.

The judge said Mr Maddison had been killed for drugs which were worth only £80.

He told the defendants: “You are both responsible in different ways for the loss of life of a man of 31. He may have succumbed to addiction to drugs, but didn’t deserve to die at your hands.”

The court heard Mr Maddison left his home in Mills Terrace, Chatham, in the early hours of March 30 last year with Stevie-Anne Stacey to supply crack cocaine to Brown and Sykes.

Mr Maddison took a knife with him. Miss Stacey put two “rocks” of the drug in her mouth.

When they met up in Chatham's Magpie Hall Road, Sykes held a knife to Miss Stacey’s throat and ordered her to spit them out. She managed to get away and as she looked back she saw Mr Maddison being attacked.

Philip St John-Stevens, prosecuting, said a knife penetrated a main artery and Mr Maddison was left bleeding to death.

Brown, of Brookmead Road, Cliffe, and Sykes, of Johnson Avenue, Gillingham, at first blamed each other, but when giving evidence, Sykes claimed he stabbed the victim because he feared Brown was in danger of being knifed.