A MURDERER who stabbed a man to death as he slept has been told he will spend at least 28 years behind bars.

Jurors earlier today found Ben Harvey, of Ridges View, Little London, guilty of murder after the 22-year-old denied killing William Rudiak at a house in Turin Court on June 11 last year.

This afternoon at Winchester Crown Court, Harvey was sentenced to life imprisonment and was told he must serve 28 years as a minimum.

Jurors did not accept Harvey’s version of events that he had been in a psychotic state with little memory of entering the Turin Court house at 2.57am through an open window, armed with a knife that he took from his parents’ home.

Harvey stabbed Mr Rudiak as he slept with his girlfriend Alexandra Taylor, before he fled the scene, leaving the knife in the bedroom.

The court heard Harvey then drove to another address in a village close to Andover where he tried to sexually assault a teenage girl.

The jury also found Harvey guilty of one count of causing actual bodily harm (ABH) to Ms Taylor, after he bit her on the cheek during the same attack on 26-year-old Mr Rudiak, and trespass with intent to commit a sexual offence regarding the incident with the teenage girl on the same night.

For the ABH offence, Harvey received two-and-a-half years in prison and for the sexual offence he was given eight years, both to run concurrently.