(London) A 20-year old Liverpool man has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the death of an 18-year old gay man who was brutally beaten and dumped on a street to die.

O’Connor pleaded guilty in a deal with prosecutors that took a hate crime charge off the table. His co-defendant, Michael Binsteed, 19, pleaded guilty to perverting the cause of justice and was given 34 weeks in custody that was suspended for two years.

The third accused, Gavin Alker, 19, who had been charged with murder but pleaded not guilty, was absolved by a jury last month.

Causer was part of a group that had met during a night out at a local pub. After heavy drinking, the group went to the grandmother’s home of one of the men to “sleep it off.”

During Alker’s trial, the prosecution alleged that Alker discovered from one of the other men that Causer was gay.

Prosecutor Richard Pratt told the jury that Alker took a heavy hardbound American history book from a shelf, went into the room where Causer was sleeping and used it to batter Causer’s head. He then beat and kicked him repeatedly.

Pratt told the jury there was only one reason for the attack: “Michael Causer was gay.”

Pratt told the trial that the evidence showed that Alker tried to burn a section of Causer’s leg and prepared to rip his body piercings out with a knife.

At that point, as Causer lay unconscious, Alker, Binsteed and O’Connor decided to dump the body on a street.

They allegedly hoisted the body over a fence and dragged it to the road. Pratt said that Alker then fled and the other two returned to the house and cleaned away evidence. Binsteed called an ambulance.

Paramedics found Causer on the roadway barely breathing and suffering massive brain injuries and was rushed to hospital.  He died eight days later when doctors declared him brain dead and a ventilator was removed.

During his trial Alker blamed O’Connor for the killing.

At his sentencing Mr Justice King told O’Connor his actions were “ignoble” and “cowardly.”