A GANG member who murdered a Hampshire pensioner in a ''vicious and sustained'' attack but later gave evidence against his friends was jailed for life today.

However Lewis Hoare was told by the trial judge that because of an early plea and the evidence he gave, he would only have to serve eight years before being eligible for parole.

Hoare, now 19, was one of four - including two teenage girls - who punched and kicked Brian Kitching, 68, on Southsea seafront in September 2005 after one of them falsely accused him of being a paedophile.

Former Royal Navy rating Mr Kitching, who was walking through a rock garden when the gang struck unprovoked, died from his injuries six months later.

Witnesses said he had been kicked by the drunken gang ''like a football''.

Amie Bartholomew, then 18 and pregnant, started the attack when she shouted to Mr Kitching he was a ''dirty paedophile'' and punched him.

Later she was heard to say: ''He's the one who nonced me when I was a little kid.'' Melissa Healy, who was 16 at the time, Paul Dewar, then 25, and Hoare, then 18, all joined in the attack, repeatedly punching and kicking his head, face and body.

The four then washed off the blood in the sea before they were arrested.

Last week Bartholomew and Healy from Portsmouth and Dewar from Taunton, Somerset were found guilty of murdering Mr Kitching at Winchester Crown Court and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Today the same court heard that Hoare had admitted his guilt and had given ''clear and important evidence'' against his three friends, despite fears he would now be considered a grass.

Sentencing Hoare, Mrs Justice Dobbs told him: ''The injuries suffered, given that no weapon was used, were horrific and serve to remind us that fists and shod feet in particular can be as lethal as weapons.

''He (Mr Kitching) did nothing to defend himself against this vicious and sustained attack.

''Your undoubted courage in giving evidence against your co-defendants deserves a significant reduction in your sentence. You did not try to minimise your role in this incident. You were fully aware of the gravity of what you did.'' Mrs Justice Dobbs said that because of the aggravating features of the case, Hoare would normally have had to serve at least 16 years before he was eligible for parole.

But she said his early plea and the evidence, plus she accepted he had not intended to kill Mr Kitching, meant she had halved this tariff to eight years.

As he left the dock, Hoare thanked the judge.

During the trial of the other three, the jury heard Mr Kitching suffered 18 broken ribs, fractured eye sockets, a punctured lung and brain damage and died in a nursing home when he could not clear his throat and choked as a direct result of his injuries.

Dewar was told he will serve a minimum of 16 years. Bartholomew was told she would serve a minimum of 15 years and Healy was told she would serve a minimum of 10 years.

The court also heard that the group had then attacked another man on the seafront straight after beating up Mr Kitching. Hoare was sentenced to three months for this attack, to run concurrently, after admitting actual bodily harm.

Hoare, from Portsmouth, was also given 10 months' jail, again to run concurrently, for assaulting an off-duty policeman in June 2005.