A SOLDIER was beaten to death by a drunken teenager hours before he was due to pay his respects at the Cenotaph in London.

Graeme Johnson, 37, was pounced on by a thug who fancied a fight after a drinking binge with his mates.

Carl Hutchinson, 19, targeted the mild-mannered father-of-one who walked past him as he headed home from his regular Friday night out playing dominoes with his father at a Gateshead social club.

Hutchinson punched and kicked Mr Johnson after first trying to trip him from behind, just yards from his home in Creslow, Gateshead.

Hutchinson, who had no previous convictions but a reputation for violence when he had been drinking, punched him to the ground, then repeatedly kicked him in the head, face and neck.

Friends tried to stop him but the teenager landed more blows as Mr Johnson, who had been due to take a TA tour of duty in Bosnia, lay dying in a pool of blood.

Mr Johnson had been due to travel to London for the Remembrance Day service the day after the attack.

A post-mortem examination showed he had been killed by multiple blunt force injuries to his head.

Hutchinson, a father of two, of Langrigg, Leam Lane, Gateshead, initially denied murdering Mr Johnson on November 8 last year, but changed his plea to guilty when his case was listed yesterday.

Mr Justice Grigson, jailing Hutchinson for life, said: "You chose a victim, apparently at random, a 37-year-old man you did not know. A man of value who was loved by his family and friends."