Two men who brutally kicked a man to death in a park have been found guilty of his murder.

Andrew Goss, 24, and Aadeel Virani, 21, showed no emotion as they were convicted by a jury at Lewes Crown Court yesterday after a three-week trial.

They will be sentenced today and face years behind bars for killing Seph Lawrance, 22, who was described by his grieving family as a shy and peaceful young man who hoped to make a future career in a caring profession.

When the verdict was announced there were gasps of relief from relatives and friends of the victim packed into the court.

Mr Lawrance, who worked at Costa Coffee in Gatwick, was violently attacked as he walked through Goffs Park, in Crawley, to visit a friend on the evening of January 7.

Mr Lawrance, of Leopold Road, Crawley, belonged to an organisation dedicated to carrying out good deeds for others on a Friday. Ironically, it was on a Friday he was beaten to death and left dying on a footpath in Goffs Lane.

The court heard there did not appear to be any motive for the brutal killing and the prosecution described the murder as an unprovoked attack on a defenceless victim.

Mr Lawrance, who was about 6ft tall and receiving medical treatment for being underweight, was said by his family to be a pacifist who had never shown any sign of aggressive behaviour.

It is believed his drunken attackers targeted him in the darkness of the park and demanded he hand over a cigarette. When he refused, because he did not smoke, he was violently beaten, knocked to the ground and kicked and stamped on.

His devastated mother, Alison Foxley, who had sat through every day of the trial, said: "Nothing can ever change the heartache of losing such a cherished member of our family, especially in these circumstances. But if we can have stopped someone else going through the pain we are feeling, this fight for justice will all be worthwhile. We must now try to return to some kind of normal life, which in its own way will only highlight for us the fact we no longer have Seph to share our lives with."

The court heard Goss and Virani, both unemployed, spent the day of the killing drinking lager stolen from local stores, including 24 cans of Fosters from the Asda supermarket.

They pestered passers-by for cigarettes as they hung around the town being a nuisance. In the evening, they started to walk through the dark park, where they intimidated people by demanding cigarettes.

Police believe they were loitering in the park with the intention of robbing someone. There were no witnesses to the fatal assault but the court heard how minutes afterwards the two men arrived at a friend's house nearby and confessed they had attacked a man.

When Goss, of Monarch Close, Crawley, and Virani, of Jewel Walk, Crawley, were arrested four days after the attack, they blamed each other for starting the violence.

The jury considered their verdicts for more than a day before convicting the two men of murder and clearing them of robbery. After the verdicts, Detective Chief Inspector Adam Hibbert said: "Seph's tragic and unprovoked death was the worst possible outcome for alcohol-fuelled violence."