A graphic designer who slashed a father's throat with a bottle after an exclusive Jessie J gig was jailed for life today.
Ashley Charles, 26, attacked Blackberry executive Phillip Sherriff, 37, after they bumped into each other in the free bar.
Mr Sherriff died four days after his throat was slashed in front of hundreds of revellers at Pulse nightclub in London, shortly after the singer had performed.
Charles, from Leicester, denied murder, claiming he acted in self-defence but was convicted following a trial at the Old Bailey.
Judge Paul Worsley said Charles killed Mr Sherriff because he was 'annoyed' and 'lost his temper'.
The blow, which was caught on CCTV, severed the victim’s carotid artery and jugular vein and caused massive blood loss.
Charles and Mr Sheriff, from Preston Lancashire, clashed just after midnight while jostling for space in the bar area.
The killer had been talking to a girl and when he asked Mr Sheriff for some space, the victim replied: ‘She doesn’t want to be talking to you. She’d much rather be talking to me, wouldn’t you, love?’
CCTV footage played to the trial shows Charles squaring up to his victim.
After further pushing and shoving between the men, Charles unsuccessfully tried to snatch Mr Sheriff’s mobile phone.
He then grabbed the older man’s bottle of beer before swinging it at the victim’s neck.
‘Witnesses described seeing the blow as a swipe or slash,’ said prosecutor Duncan Penny.‘It all happened very quickly, perhaps one second - one second to take a life.'
Partygoers desperately tried to save the married father of two by using clingfilm to stem the bleeding but he later died in hospital.
As awful as this incident is, they make it a point to say the victim was a father but he was also flirting with the girl. Not a justification for his murder obviously, but I wouldn't paint the victim as some innocent bystander either.
OMG.
Phillip Sherriff