A thug has been jailed for life for killing a father-of-two during a brawl at flats in Margate.
Ian Deadman will serve a minimum of 15 years before the parole board will consider whether it is safe to release him.
A jury of six men and six women returned a unanimous guilty verdict that he murdered 25-year-old Tommy Balsom.
Deadman showed no emotion as a judge told him: “This yet another wanton and senseless killing brought about by indiscriminate use of a knife by someone in drink.”
Maidstone Crown Court heard Deadman lashed out with the knife when intervening in a fight between his friend James Carter and Mr Balsom in the communal hallway of flats in Canterbury Road on September 8 last year.
Deadman stabbed Mr Balsom in the neck and chest. He denied the attack.
The victim, who had that day started a plastering course at South Kent College in Ashford, died from the blade entering his neck and penetrating a vital artery in his lung.
Judge Andrew Patience QC said Deadman had no quarrel with Mr Balsom when he became involved in the violence.
“The effect on his family has been devastating, indeed catastrophic,” said the judge. “I have read what I can only describe as a deeply moving impact statement made by his father Peter Balsom.
“His life has been shattered. He continues to suffer terribly, both physically and emotionally. Any words I use now cannot do justice to what he has gone through and continues to go through.
“No parent should have to bury a child unless it is absolutely necessary, but he has had to do that. What he has suffered as a result of the loss of his son will, no doubt, remain with him for the rest of his life.”
The judge spoke of the awful effect on Mr Balsom’s children, aged seven and four.
“All this you have inflicted upon that family because you killed Tommy Balsom when, I have no doubt, you were angry and fuelled by drink,” he said.