TWO men who battered a man to death with baseball bats in Stroud Green after they found out he had slept with one of their girlfriends have been jailed for life.

Aaron Spencer, 21, and O'Fill Allen, 20, used Spencer's 18-year-old girlfriend, Tara Icar, as a honey trap to lure Orlando Thompson to his death.

They lay in wait in a phone box before pouncing on the 31-year-old outside a bus stop and repeatedly beating him around the head with baseball bats.

Icar walked off as Mr Thompson collapsed to the ground with a fractured skull and swelling to the scalp during the frenzied attack.

He was taken to Charing Cross Hospital but died five days later after a severe heart attack.

The Old Bailey heard how Mr Thompson, who used the street name 'X' and was also known as Neil Atherton, met Spencer's girlfriend Tara Icar while driving through Finsbury Park in his BMW. They exchanged phone numbers and they had sex after a date on June 10, 2003.

But when jealous Spencer found out about Thompson a few days later, he set up the fatal attack.

On June 22, Mr Thompson left his house in Sweet Briar Green, Edmonton, to meet Icar and pulled up at the bus stop in Stroud Green Road, near the junction with Tollington Park.

She enticed him out of the car while Spencer and Allen hid in a phone box with one wooden and one metal baseball bat.

Prosecuting Sally Howes QC, told the court: "They made straight for Mr Thompson and attacked him, striking him repeatedly and forcefully with the bats.

"Most of the blows were to the head and many were struck while he was on the ground, injured and helpless."

Police found two baseball bats in a nearby rubbish bin covered with traces of the victim's blood. A used condom with Mr Thompson's semen and traces of Icar's DNA was found in the victim's jacket pocket.

Spencer later told friends he and Allen had beaten up a man who made sexual advances towards 'his girl' but did not mean to kill him.

Judge Paul Focke QC told the pair: "You mercilessly beat the unarmed man about the head. O'Fill Allen, you became an enthusiastic and willing partner in this revenge attack.

"The sentence for murder is mandatory."

Allen, of Osborne Road, Finsbury Park, will serve a minimum of 11 years and 127 days before parole is considered and Spencer, of Mildmay Road, Islington, will serve at least 12 years and 127 days.

Icar, of Queens Drive, Finsbury Park, admitted conspiracy to cause actual bodily harm. She will be sentenced at a later date.