TWO cousins who punched and kicked a Huddersfield man to death after claims he touched one of their girlfriends "inappropriately" were today starting life sentences.

Nathan Crawley, 29, who was brought up in Bradley, was found beaten unconscious in a park in the seaside town of Hornsea, East Yorkshire, in the early hours of Friday, July 28 last year.

He was pronounced dead in hospital from bleeding within his skull.

It was the first murder in Hornsea since 1880.

A jury of seven men and five women took eight hours to find Lee Alan Mark Richmond, 20, of Newbegin, Hornsea, and his cousin Ryan Alan Ashton, 18, of Westbourne Road, Hornsea, guilty of the murder.

Richmond and Ashton were sentenced at Hull Crown Court to a minimum jail term of 13 and 10 years respectively.

A 15-year-old girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was found not guilty of murder and not guilty of an alternative count of manslaughter.

All three defendants denied murdering Mr Crawley, a father-of-one.

The 15-year-old, Ashton's girlfriend, told police a group of friends were drinking in Hall Garth Park when Mr Crawley started touching her and would not let go.

Shortly before midnight, Ashton and Mr Crawley were involved in a scuffle and, after a short time, Richmond joined in.

Mr Crawley, of Salisbury Avenue, Hornsea, went to the ground where he was kicked and punched.

He suffered bruising to his head, face, body and legs and sustained four fractured ribs.

Sentencing, the judge, Mr Justice Openshaw, said: "The violence fuelled by drink fed upon itself and the attack was pursued with a determination and relentlessness.

"Ryan Ashton even knelt down beside him and as he was kneeling down beside him lifted up his head and head butted him.

"This was a vicious assault which continued long after he fell unconscious and defenceless to the ground."

He said he accepted Mr Crawley "had been making inappropriate sexual remarks" to the girl.

He continued: "I am sure that Nathan Crawley did touch her inappropriately in some way but it fell far short of the attempted rape which she once suggested."

He said he had no doubt the girl was upset and it was "entirely understandable" that Ashton was also upset.

Justice Openshaw said Richmond, who saw Ashton "more as a younger brother than a cousin" joined in out of a sense of "misplaced loyalty".

The court heard that a neighbour phoned the police and gave a running commentary on the attack.

The neighbour heard one of the attackers say the victim was "getting the hiding of his life and he deserves it".

The other attacker replied: "Cheers mate, I couldn't have done it without you."

The judge said it was not possible to say who gave the killer blow, a single strike to the left side of the head.

He said it was clear that at some stage Ashton tried to call Richmond off. More than once, he was heard saying: "Leave him Lee, leave him for dead."

The court heard that Richmond threatened Crawley, saying that if he came near his family again he was going to kill him.

"Unfortunately of course, he had already done so," the judge said.

All three defendants walked into Hornsea police station at around 10am on the Friday morning.

At the end of an 11-day trial family and friends of the defendants in the public gallery sobbed uncontrollably as the foreman gave the guilty verdicts.

Richmond clenched his jaw and Ashton broke down in tears. Richmond put a comforting hand on his cousin's shoulder.

The girl, wearing a zipped cream hooded top with her hair tied back in a pony tail, was also weeping.