A man has been jailed for life after admitting he murdered his disabled neighbour who had been wrongly branded a paedophile.

Lee James, 24, killed Bijan Ebrahimi and set fire to his body in the Brislington area of Bristol in July.

Mr Justice Simon ordered that James must serve a minimum of 18 years in prison.

Bristol Crown Court heard Mr Ebrahimi, who was an Iranian national and in his 40s, died from head injuries.

Stephen Norley, 25, who had admitted assisting an offender, was given a four-year jail term.

He helped James drag Mr Ebrahimi's body from the scene of the attack and obtained white spirit to burn the body. His remains were found 100m from his maisonette in Capgrave Crescent.

Mr Ebrahimi was murdered on 14 July, three days after he was arrested by police following complaints that he had been taking pictures of children near his home.

Officers examined his camera, videos and computer but found nothing suspicious and he was released without charge.

The night before the killing Mr Ebrahimi recorded video of James holding a beer can and shouting at him after realising he was being filmed. Jurors were shown the video.

In sentencing the pair, who both lived near the victim, the judge described the murder as "deeply shocking".

He said it was "a vigilante crime" and "an act of murderous injustice", adding that claims that Mr Ebrahimi was a paedophile were baseless.

He said: "Lee James was shouting at Mr Ebrahimi, telling him in abusive terms to stop taking pictures, to give him the camera, to delete the photographs.

"Mr James himself told one of the witnesses that Mr Ebrahimi had taken pictures of him with a can of beer in his hand.

"Mr Powell remembers Mr James saying 'I am going to burn his house down'.

"At one point Mr James entered Mr Ebrahimi's home uninvited and remonstrated with him and threatened him."

The court heard that during the fatal attack James repeatedly stamped on Mr Ebrahimi's head, shouting "have some of that".

Mr Langdon said that after murdering Mr Ebrahimi and burning his body, James told his girlfriend: "We sorted him out. We took care of things."

James, also of Capgrave Crescent, told police he had kicked Mr Ebrahimi "like a football... I had so much anger in me".

The court heard Mr Ebrahimi, who moved to the UK in 2001, made several calls to police in the 48 hours before his murder, but "those calls were not responded to".