A trainee policeman is beginning a life sentence this week for murdering his father at their family home in Enfield.

Stephen Vaughan, 22, bludgeoned milkman Donald Vaughan to death as he sat reading in the kitchen of their home in Nursery Gardens, on November 25 last year.

The Old Bailey heard how Vaughan's older brother Michael, 31, covered for him, and the pair left their father to die in a pool of blood as they drove off to see Stephen's girlfriend, play pool and watch the Quentin Tarantino revenge movie Kill Bill at a cinema.

Just six months earlier, Mr Vaughan, 63, had suffered serious injuries after being beaten up in the street.

The court heard how a third brother, Keith, 28, and his mother Joan, a primary school cleaner, discovered Mr Vaughan's body face down in a pool of blood.

Police later found 60 spots of Mr Vaughan's blood on Stephen's trousers and blood stains on Michael's clothing.

Both brothers originally claimed their father had been alive when they left the house. But after their arrest on March 17 this year, police heard Stephen say to his mother "I'm going down for life and I don't care if I don't get out."

The court heard the relationship between Vaughan, who was about to become a community police officer, and his father had broken down after he began bringing his girlfriend Hayley home late at night and making noise.

In June, Michael, a supermarket baker, changed his story and claimed Stephen had carried out the attack.

Prosecutor Nicholas Hilliard told the jury: "He said he hadn't told the police before out of loyalty to his brother."

The new statement read "I did not kill my father, I had the utmost respect for him, I was content with my life."

Michael told the jury he was waiting for his brother to get ready when he came downstairs and found his father's lifeless body in the kitchen and his brother standing nearby, washing blood off his arms.

He told the court he stormed outside to his car where he was joined by Stephen who told him to carry on with their night out as planned.

Sentencing Stephen Vaughan on Monday, judge Jeremy Roberts recommended he serve at least 13 years in jail.

Vaughan looked to the public gallery for support as he was taken to the cells.

Michael Vaughan was found not guilty of murder but guilty of assisting an offender and was jailed for three years. He will be freed in 10 months time, because of time already spent on remand.