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Spindrift
A 29-year-old man has been convicted of killing a man who died five years after being stamped and kicked on the head.
Jason Gilmour, 29, left father-of-one Scott Hepburn brain-damaged, paralysed from the neck down and only able to communicate by blinking.
Mr Hepburn was cared for in a nursing home in Glasgow before dying in 2017.
Gilmour, of Kilwinning, North Ayrshire, was previously sentenced to five years and four months for assaulting Mr Hepburn in 2012.
He was charged with murder after Mr Hepburn died aged 23. But a jury at the High Court in Glasgow convicted him of the lesser charge of culpable homicide.
Pathologist Dr Marjorie Turner told the court: "I have no doubt Mr Hepburn's death was as a result of complications of his traumatic brain injury."
'We started fighting'
Gilmour assaulted Mr Hepburn on 11 June 2012 in Hill Street, Ardrossan, by repeatedly punching him on the head, causing him to fall to the ground and then repeatedly kicking and stamping on his head.
Jurors heard that Gilmour was questioned by police after the attack.
He told them: "Scott started pushing me and then he came running towards me and the two of us started fighting."
He admitted punching Mr Hepburn four or five times, but when he was asked if he kicked his head and then stamped on it, he said: "No."
But he then said: "I was intoxicated. I've maybe took it a bit too far. I probably did go a wee bit too far on him. He attacked me first."
Judge Lady Stacey deferred sentence on Gilmour until later this month for background reports.
She said: "I would find it of assistance to have as much information as possible before sentencing."