Drunken thug jailed for 9 years after setting fire to homeless man's blanket during four-hour attack in Newcastle, UK

Khaled Hassan was seen setting fire to the homeless man's blankets. Photo / Police

Shocking footage has emerged showing a drunk thug setting fire to a homeless man's blanket during four hours of "torture" in a churchyard.

In the footage, the attacker, 43-year-old Khaled Hassan, took to the homeless man's blanket with a lighter, watching it go up in flames as the man slept under it while on a park bench.

The victim, who is blind in one eye and suffers from mental health problems, was subjected to four hours of torture, and received burns and permanent scars from the ordeal.

Khaled Hassan was seen setting fire to the homeless man's blankets. Photo / Police

The homeless victim was found bloodied and bruised in St Hilda's Church just outside Newcastle, England, in the early morning of July 9, 2017.

Prosecutors said Hassan and his accomplice Mark Liddle started rummaging through the homeless man's pockets about 6.30am looking for something to steal.

As Liddle walked away, Hassan set the victim on fire before beating him with a crutch, throwing glass bottles at him, spitting on him and drawing on his face with a pen.

Khaled Hassan has been jailed for more than nine years after torturing the victim. Photo / Police

Footage showed Hassan laughing throughout the ordeal.

Judge Tim Gittins said: "You proceeded, over three and a half hours or so, from 6.30am to just before 10am, to degrade and humiliate him, to assault him repeatedly and, effectively, to torture him, principally with fire, for no other purpose it would seem than his incapability to respond and defend himself and for apparent laughs, as you are seen thinking that this behaviour towards him was humorous from start to finish.

"You were laughing towards others who were slow or incapable to intervene in your cruelty."

He also blocked other people from attempting to help the man.

The judge added: "It could so easily have been fatal if his clothing has not been so fire resistant or his shock being lessened by the intoxicants he had taken."

Hassan was this week jailed for nine and a half years jail for the attack.

His accomplice, Liddle, was sentenced to seven months' jail, suspended for two years, with 100 hours of unpaid work and a six-month, nighttime curfew.