A MAN who left a policeman in a vegetative state seven years ago has been jailed for breaking into a house and starting a fire.

Jack Turner, aged 23, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to burglary and arson and was sentenced at Croydon Crown Court to three years in prison.

On the evening of August 2 the owner of a house in Burnt Ash Lane, Bromley, returned home to find the property had been broken into and ransacked with a large burn mark in the middle of the carpet, where a liquid had been poured and set alight.

Turner was identified and arrested after his blood and a fingerprint were found at the scene.

His sentence comes seven years after he carried out a frenzied attack with Lance Samuels on Lewisham PC Daniel Coffill, in Queen's Road, Bromley, in July 2005.

The police officer had been out with friends when he approached one of the youths for spitting at his car.

He was punched in the face by Turner, and fell to the ground unconscious, fracturing his skull, after which point the pair continued to kick him.

Seven years on, Mr Coffill remains in a vegetative state and is unable to walk or talk. His mother gave up her job to become his full-time carer.

After being found guilty of causing GBH with intent in May 2006, Turner was originally sentenced to nine years and Samuels got eight.

When sentencing them in 2006, Judge John Tanzer described the pair as "devoid of the most basic concept of morality".

However, they had their sentences reduced by two years at the Court of Appeal the following year.