A KILLER who repeatedly knifed a friend to death has been jailed for at least 17 years.

Norman 'Buju' Barrett, aged 47, died in a bloodbath after 29-year-old Tobi Henry attacked him with four knives and battered him with an iron.

At around 3am on September 5 last year, police were called to Barrett’s home in Lucas Court, Bell Green Lane, Sydenham to reports of two men fighting.

On arrival officers discovered the lifeless body of Norman Barrett lying in the communal hallway of the block outside his flat.

While officers and the London Ambulance Service treated Mr Barrett, Henry emerged from the victim’s flat in a distressed state and covered in blood.

At the time Henry told officers that he had been asleep, and woke to find Norman pacing around with a wound to his neck and a knife in his hand.

He later claimed to have acted in self-defence after Mr Barrett made homosexual advances towards him.

Henry, of no fixed address, was convicted of murder by an Old Bailey jury on August 8 after a two week trial.

Jailing him for life yesterday (August 9), with a minimum term of 17 years, Judge Stephen Kramer QC said: “This was a determined, sustained and lethal attack on Mr Barrett - in his own home.

“The jury rejected provocation - this killing was in anger. Even if the deceased made homosexual advances to you, what you did was brutal.

“What you did went beyond self-defence.”