A Latvian man is facing life behind bars after a jury convicted him today of murdering his partner's son in the early hours of New Year's Day.

Following the unanimous verdict, it was revealed Juris Popovs had killed before in Russia.

Sentence was adjourned until September 10 so that more information can be obtained on the conviction.

The 47-year-old thug stabbed his partner's son Dimitris Titovs at flats in Teynham, near Sittingbourne, on January 1.

Popovs had denied murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter, implying it must have been the victim's mother Svetlana Kandate who inflicted the fatal chest wound.

Maidstone Crown Court heard there had been bad feeling and violent rows between the two men before the tragedy at Henley Place, in London Road.

Mr Titovs, 21, went to the flats late on New Year's Eve to celebrate with his mother.

Prosecutor Kalyani Kaul QC said Popovs and Mr Titovs clashed in the early hours. There was then a row between Popovs and Miss Kandate, 41, inside their flat.

Fearing for his mother's safety, Mr Titovs and friends banged on the door. As Miss Kandate opened it, her son fell or stumbled in.

He was stabbed and collapsed in the doorway. An ambulance was called, but he died soon afterwards.

Miss Kandate told the jury after the fatal injury was inflicted she jumped out of a window on the first floor and next recalled being in the street.

Asked why she jumped, she replied: "Dimitris said if I stayed in the flat, I would get the same as what happened to my son."

Popovs denied through a Russian interpreter that he stabbed the victim.

After the verdict, Miss Kaul said Popovs had been jailed for seven years and eight months in Russia in 1988 for causing the death of a man by using excessive self-defence.

But the Russian authorities had not provided enough information to "prove" the conviction.

"The matter ended up at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office," said Miss Kaul. "It cannot be treated as an aggravating feature at the moment as it has not been properly proved.

"We should be able to get that information at the end of August in the proper form."

Judge Philip Statman said the conviction could be the equivalent of manslaughter in the UK.

"I make it clear it will not go on indefinitely," he said. "The sentence for murder is a mandatory one of life imprisonment, but I have to consider the correct starting point."

Popovs showed no emotion or any reaction to the guilty verdict.

Judge Statman praised the jury of six men and five women, one member having been discharged, for performing "this enormously difficult task".

He also commended the police team led by DCI Jon Clayden for the professional manner in which the case was prepared.

"We are very fortunate indeed to have the quality of policing I have seen in the course of this investigation," he added. "You have gone well beyond the call of duty.

"It is an exceptional course you have taken in preparing the papers in this case. I commend the whole of the team."