ARROGANT and angry, cocky and contradictory - just four of the character flaws of a man who was prepared to kill for just a few pounds.

Out-of-work chef Glyn Sullivan tortured pensioner Harry Campbell to give up the whereabouts of a safe containing his collection of gold ingots.

The disabled 66-year-old was left for dead on the floor of the front room of his flat in east Cleveland, after being beaten to a pulp last October.

Sullivan, 41, repeatedly changed his story about the night of the savage attack, and repeatedly lost his temper as he gave evidence in court.

He demanded that prosecutor Paul Reid "throw the towel in" and branded the barrister as "absolutely ridiculous" as he was cross-examined at length.

At one point, his outbursts from the witness box led to Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, sending him back to the dock and asking the jury to leave court.

Sullivan was warned about his conduct, told to stop rowing with Mr Reid and advised that it was best to leave arguments about the evidence to his barrister.

He swore, accused the prosecutor of "exaggerating things from day one" and confidently predicted that he would "be home by Monday" after an acquittal.

Yet Sullivan's boast was as misplaced as his cocksure assertion that forensic tests would clear him of being at the Boosbeck ground-floor apartment.

Ironically, it was science which helped to nail the attacker - with blood found on his watch and trainers along with his footprints at the scene.

In his summing-up, Judge Bourne-Arton described the heroin addict as "rude, dismissive, contemptuous, argumentative, truculent and intimidating".

The victim - who suffers from lung disease and asthma - sustained brain damage, fractures to his jaw, eye socket and cheek, and multiple knife wounds.

Sullivan initially claimed he had been nowhere near Boosbeck, but then admitted stealing Mr Campbell's car when it was proved otherwise by detectives.

He denied knowing the pensioner and insisted he had never been inside his home, but he was lodging with Mr Campbell's gardener at the time of the attack.

"Forensics will be my alibi," he said in his first two interviews after his arrest. "At the end of the day, I'm not too a****. I just want it sorted."

Now it is sorted, and Sullivan - who boasted that he was well off and did not need his neighbour's money - is now staring at a lengthy jail term.

He told the jury he had recently made £30,000 from a house sale, ran a BMW 5 series, earned £30,000-a-year as a chef at top restaurants and had savings.

He repeatedly referred to a £280 jumper he was wearing in court, and said he could easily afford the drug addiction he had had for more than 20 years.

When he was being questioned by police about Mr Campbell, he callously told them: "I don't give a s*** about him. Why would I? I don't even know him."