A TEENAGER who battered to death a student and wedged his body between rocks at a marina was yesterday found guilty of his murder and jailed for life.

Kevin Littlewood, 18, from Hartlepool, was locked up after a jury spent nearly four hours reaching its verdict.

John Paul Jeffries, also 18, was killed with hammer blows in what Judge Peter Fox said was a merciless and unprovoked attack.

John Paul owed money to Littlewood, who stole his house keys from his body and took a television and video recorder from his home, said Neil Davey QC, prosecuting.

Littlewood, who lived in a hostel in St Paul's Road, Hartlepool, confessed the murder to his mother, who was a prosecution witness during the trial. But he claimed at Teesside Crown Court that he watched an older man kill the teenager.

Defence witnesses claimed Littlewood was under the influence of Darren Gibson, 34, who was initially also charged with the killing

Mr Gibson did not stand trial because of a lack of evidence.

Yesterday, Littlewood was also found guilty of the theft of John Paul's property, a week before fishermen spotted the body above the waterline.

Relatives of the dead man, of Lowthian Road, Hartlepool, wept in court as the verdict was read out.

Judge Fox told Littlewood: "The details of your killing John Paul Jeffries remain far from clear - most importantly whether all the blows were struck by you or by both you and another.

"It was pitiless, it was merciless. He died a dreadful and lonely death, and you hid his body where he lay for a week."

After the verdict, Edwin Jeffries, John Paul's father, said: "I think he should be locked up for the rest of his life because he is a danger to society. It is not just him who is serving a life sentence. We are serving a life sentence too - a life without John Paul."