A convicted drug trafficker who killed a man in a hammer attack has been jailed for eight years.

William Richardson, 35, turned up at a house in Kelty, in Fife, and went into a bedroom where Colin Oliphant had been resting.

He repeatedly assaulted the victim with the tool, leaving him with 39 injuries.

Other people in the house heard Mr Oliphant plead: "Sorry Willie, don't hit me, stop it Willie. What are you doing with that... don't, don't."

Richardson then emerged from the room with his injured victim walking behind him.

The killer told him: "You know I am a boxer". He then punched him on the nose.

An ambulance was called but the attack victim's face and throat continued to swell. The swelling also spread to his arms, legs and body.

Father-of-one Mr Oliphant, 38, went into cardiac arrest and despite efforts to save him he died.

The cause of death was later given as complications of chest trauma.

Prosecutors said that before the fatal attack on him he had expressed concern that he could not pay £200 for drugs he had obtained.

A judge told Richardson at the High Court in Edinburgh: "This was a savage assault with a weapon. It resulted in another man's death. His young daughter has lost her father."

The judge added that he accepted that Richardson had expressed "genuine remorse" over the offence.

Richardson, formerly of Park Brae Gate, Ruchill, Glasgow, was originally charged with murdering Mr Oliphant in the attack at Keltyhill Avenue on September 6 last year.

But the Crown earlier accepted his guilty plea to a reduced charge of culpable homicide.

He admitted repeatedly punching the victim on the head and body and repeatedly striking him on the body with a weapon and killing him.