Neighbour faces life sentence for man’s murder

Steven Green, 38, punched and kicked 62-year-old Ronald Harding until he was “bloody and senseless” at the flats where they both lived.

Green then dragged Mr Harding from the second floor landing back into his own flat to die.

A jury at Sheffield Crown Court took just an hour to find Green, of Skelton Way, Woodhouse, Sheffield, guilty of murder.

He had denied murder but pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility during the week-long trial.

Green’s counsel Michael Hibberd QC said the starting point for the minimum term Green would serve is 15 years in prison.

He said the offence was aggravated by the ferocity of the attack but in mitigation the judge would have to take into account that Green suffered from a depressive disorder.

The judge Mr Justice Andrew Smith will sentence Green at a later date.

Jurors heard prosecutor Paul Watson QC describe the attack as “sustained and vicious”.

Green said it was triggered after the pair argued in the Royal pub in Woodhouse on November 5 last year.

He told police he went home before smashing Mr Harding’s door with a vacuum cleaner and then assaulting him. He admitted hitting the victim “no end of times”.

Before the incident they had lived happily opposite each other and were on friendly terms.

Mr Harding had been drinking in the pub for most of the afternoon and Green came in at 4pm leaving an hour later. Mr Harding went home at 6.20pm.

The court heard the pair had argue and Green’s friend Kevin Truelove found Green cleaning blood from the stairs.

Green told him: “Mention one word of this and I’m going to kill you.”

The defendant later told Mr Truelove that he had really hurt Mr Harding. He said: “I might have killed him,” said Mr Truelove. Green then dialled 999.

Green told officers Mr Harding had embarrassed him at the pub. Mr Harding suffered multiple injuries including three skull fractures, broken ribs and a brain haemorrhage.