A 20-year-old supermarket worker who brutally attacked two homeless men, killing one, has been given two life sentences.

Kenneth Smith will serve a minimum of 20 years in jail for the drug-fuelled murder of 65-year-old Lalji Joshi.

Smith also received a 10-year concurrent sentence for the attempted murder of 45-year-old John Fennessy at the Old Bailey last Wednesday.

During the attack on September 16 last year Smith tried to scalp Mr Fennessy in Queen's Gardens, Croydon, leaving him with severe brain damage.

On the same night he repeatedly kicked frail pensioner Lalji Joshi to death as he slept in the pedestrian underpass near Fairfield Halls.

Smith, of Napier Walk, Andover, already had a string of convictions for assault and possession of weapons.

The court heard how before moving to Andover from Croydon, Smith had developed a drink problem and ended up sleeping rough.

When he returned to Croydon for a week last September he went on a rampage of violence attacking homeless and vulnerable men.

On the night of the murder he had been drinking and taking cocaine.

Sentencing Smith Judge Peter Beaumont said: "You attacked John Fennessy in a manner which hardly bears description but which has left his life in ruins.

"Within a minute or two, and within the space of but a few yards, you attacked and killed Lalji Joshi.

"He posed no threat to you or to anyone else at all.

"He was trying to eke out an existence, which you of all people should have recognised because you shared from time to time the circumstances in which he was sleeping on those stairs.

"That makes what you did to him even worse."

Judge Beaumont added: "In the days leading up to it you swaggered round, attacking similar unfortunates when you came across them."

Jad Adams, chairman of Croydon charity Nightwatch, said people sleeping rough in the borough remained vulnerable.

"This man could be out of prison at the age of 40. He has committed many attacks against homeless and vulnerable people which shows he's a very dangerous man."

Mr Adams added: "The homeless community in Croydon remains vulnerable and that has not changed."