A MAN jailed for at least 14 years for murdering a Chester barman had left prison only four days before.

Kris Crosby, 23, formerly of Fisher Road, Blacon, fatally stabbed 42-year-old Gary Roberts twice at his flat on the tenth floor of St George's flats, Newton last July 3.

Later the same day he approached a 14-year-old girl in Eastham, Wirral and threatened her with a knife.

Mr Roberts, an openly gay man who worked as barman at the Belgrave Hotel in City Road, invited Crosby back to his flat after approaching him at The Cross at 5am.

Chester Crown Court heard yesterday that Crosby stabbed the barman twice in the chest with a kitchen knife after becoming fearful of his sexual advances.

He told police: 'Gary Roberts had put his arms around me and grabbed my arse. I must have got it into my head that he was one of those fellas off Crimewatch. I thought I was going to get attacked or raped because I didn't know him, he was a stranger to me.'

Prosecuting, Robin Spencer QC said Crosby knew the nature of Roberts' invitation, but accepted because he was sleep-deprived and needed somewhere to stay. Both men were extremely drunk.

The defendant decided he needed something to protect himself or frighten off further unwanted advances and found a kitchen knife. He did not intend to kill.

Mr Spencer said: 'Gary Roberts came in, saw the knife and, in the defendant's words, 'went ballistic'.

'He was grabbing and punching the defendant's arms, he lashed out with the knife and when Gary Roberts was standing up again and coming towards him he stabbed him again.

'He lowered him down to the floor, he could see and hear that he was fatally wounded and in a panic left the room, shut the door and left the flat.'

Crosby is shown on CCTV walking to Chester station, making no attempt to contact emergency services. He later travelled to Eastham where he approached the 14-year-old girl in woodland. He phoned police the following week and admitted what he had done.

Mr Roberts' body was found by his brother Mark 36 hours after the murder, after their mother became concerned he had not called.

Patrick Harrington QC, defending, called Crosby's record of drunken violence 'chilling' and 'impossible to believe when you have spoken to him in a sober and lucid state'.

At the age of 15 he hit a man over the head with a bottle. He was first jailed at 19 after breaking into a canal barge moored off Canal Street, Chester and hitting its disabled occupant in the face with a bottle.

Prior to the murder he had been serving time in prison for using a weapon to force a man to walk from Chester station to a cash machine in Frodsham Street.

Crosby, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced to a life sentence, with a minimum of 14 years in prison for the murder and a two-year concurrent sentence for the affray in Eastham.

The Hon Mr Justice Davis said: 'Gary Roberts was a friendly and inoffensive man. He is dead now and that is because of you. You know well there is only one sentence I can impose and that is life imprisonment.'