A MAN who killed his paedophile uncle who abused him as a child was yesterday jailed for eight years and eight months.

Kevin Caddick beat to death 51-year-old John Mathers after a chance encounter in Middlesbrough last November.

Caddick, 35, saw Mathers - who changed his name from Harry Oldfield after his abuse conviction - staring from a window.

A murder trial at Teesside Crown Court heard that he went to the house and asked Mathers: "Why did you do that to me when I was a kid?"

Prosecutor Mark Giuliani described the attack as "vicious and unnecessary", and told the court: "The motive was revenge."

The court heard how Mathers was punched in the face, fell to the floor and was kicked in the head as his mother shouted: "Leave him."

After his arrest hours later, Caddick admitted to police: "I've batted him all over, he deserved it. I hope he's dead."

The jury was told that Caddick was abused at least four times between 1986 and 1987 when he was aged just five or six.

His wife, Elizabeth, told the court how he had struggled to come to terms with the abuse he suffered as a young boy.

"He just couldn't cope with what Harry did to him," said Mrs Caddick. "He said 'I've got something to tell you'.

"He said 'I've been abused as a child'. It just turned my stomach. When he went into detail, it just made me sick."

Psychiatrists told the trial father-of-five Caddick was suffering from diminished responsibility at the time of the attack and the murder charge was dropped.

Caddick, of Carisbrooke Avenue, Middlesbrough, admitted the manslaughter of Mathers, who suffered catastrophic injuries - including a fractured jaw and ribs and a brain bleed - and died six weeks after the attack.

At a sentencing hearing, Samuel Green, QC, mitigating, said Caddick had an insight into his demons, and would seek counselling when he was freed from jail.

Mr Green told the court of two acts of "civil gallantry" by Caddick, and described him as "a fundamentally good citizen".

He said married Caddick had suffered burn injuries while pulling a man from an overturned vehicle, saving the driver's life.

And on another occasion, along with his brother, he tackled a mugger who had snatched a handbag from a 77-year-old woman.

The court also heard that he has previous convictions, including wounding in 2011, and threatening to destroy property.

A victim personal statement was read out by Mathers' mother, Jeanetta Oldfield, who watched helpless as her son was attacked.

She said her life was turned upside down that day, and she missed her son greatly, and was devastated by his brutal death.