A TEENAGER who hacked his father to death with a 14in knife has been sentenced to life imprisonment.

Shaun Leckenby, 18, murdered Ronald Leckenby during a sustained attack at the home they shared in the early hours of January 14.

Newcastle Crown Court heard that when police arrived at the blood-soaked scene in Park Street South, Castletown, Sunderland, Leckenby was calmly smoking a cigarette next to his father's corpse, wearing nothing but a pair of boxer shorts and a "Freddy Kruger-style" trilby.

After a four-day trial, Leckenby, of Park Street South, was found guilty of murder by a jury.

Ronald Leckenby had previously been jailed for four-and-a-half years for manslaughter after killing his brother, Christopher, following a heated argument in 2000. He was released in 2003.

During the trial, the court heard that Leckenby told officers "that's the knife I killed my dad with", when he was asked about a large blood-stained knife embedded in a cushion on the settee.

Ronald Leckenby had been stabbed through the heart, stomach and bowel.

In mitigation, defence lawyer David Robson QC said yesterday: "Shaun Leckenby was of good character until this incident, and he obviously will live with remorse for the rest of his life.

"The circumstances of this case are wholly exceptional in that he is a young man who can only have entertained the intention which the jury have found for a very short time."

The Honourable Justice Mr Field passed a sentence of life imprisonment.

Leckenby will be eligible for parole in eight years.

He said: "There is only one sentence for murder and that is of imprisonment.

"The starting point is 15 years, I agree with the defence that there are no aggravating factors to enlarge a 15-year starting point.