A LABOURER was jailed for life for stabbing his best friend to death 20 years after he was convicted of an horrific acid killing.

John Moore plunged a pair of scissors six times into former soldier Pat Irwin's neck after downing 13 pints of beer and three shots in a pub, the Old Bailey heard.

Following his conviction, shocked jurors heard the 53-year-old served two-and-a-half years for throwing hydrochloric acid into the face of 52-year-old Anthony Davies in Islington in 1991.

Mr Davies died in agony three days later.

Moore, of Glyn Road, Enfield, was jailed on Thursday, September 8, for at least 17 years for the murder of Mr Irwin outside the Halfway House pub on August 27 last year.

Judge Gerald Gordon, sentencing, said: “It is not the first time you have killed in drink, though I accept of course that that was 18 years ago and the offence of which you were convicted was manslaughter.

“Nevertheless, I cannot totally ignore that you were out drinking in the way that you were, and killing again in drink.”

Father-of-two Mr Irwin, 41, had been boozing with Moore at the pub in Great Cambridge Road, after leaving work on a building site.

An argument broke out at around 10pm between Mr Irwin and Moore's son Joey, 21, after the latter was refused a drink at the bar.

Friends and family of Joey Moore tried to stop him attacking Mr Irwin as the row spilled into the pub car park, before Moore got a pair of scissors from his car and stabbed Mr Irwin repeatedly.

Police arrested him red-handed nearby - still holding the bloodied murder weapon in his hand.

Mr Irwin's wife Melanie said her husband had been “cruelly taken from me by someone I trusted, someone I once called a friend.”

She added: “My life will never be the same - I can't escape the constant feeling of that night.

“It is like sleeping in a nightmare you cannot wake up from. I will be tormented by this for the rest of my life.

“He may as well have stabbed me that night.”

Moore's wife Kay, 51, was cleared by the jury of perverting the course of justice after being accused of trying to hide the murder weapon from police.