by Geoff Bennett

The victim of St Paul's murderer April Bright fled war-torn Somalia only to be knifed to death in the UK city where he hoped he would find salvation.

April Bright, 18, of Wilder Street, St Paul's, stabbed 35-year- old Mohamoud Hassan in the neck at The Criterion pub following last year's St Paul's Carnival.

She had already admitted manslaughter – but a jury at Bristol Crown Court took just over two hours to convict her of a murder charge on Tuesday.

On Wednesday morning she was given a life sentence, and ordered to serve a minium of 12 years.

Justice Roderick Evans, at Bristol Crown Court, said he hoped that, in handing down the minimum term of 12 years, it would deter other teenagers from equipping themselves with knives.

Mohamoud Hassan was born in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, in 1972.

He had six brothers and four sisters and his father had a grocer's shop.

His cousin Mohamed Ige, 30, who lives in Manchester, recalled how the African state collapsed into tribal civil war in 1990 and times were hard.

Mr Ige said: "His whole family was struggling, including him. It was difficult, there was no law and order. His tribe was Ashraf and Mohamoud was kidnapped by a rival militia at the beginning of 2002."

Mr Ige said Mohamoud, then aged 30, was made to work for the rival faction and, though he was shot attempting to escape, he eventually managed to make a break for it and returned home.

Mohamoud had started a family with his wife Sainab, and had two boys and a girl, but at the end of 2002 he left his native country in search of a better life.

Mr Ige said: "There was no peace in Somalia, killing was going on and he sought asylum elsewhere. He went to Kenya and then the UK.

"He first went to Manchester, where he spent a year going through the asylum application process.

"He was living with his cousin in Moss Side and learning English."

He first went to Kenya, then Manchester, and in 2004 Mohamoud came to Bristol where he worked at a warehouse in Emersons Green.

Living with friends at a housing association home in St Werburgh's, he liked it in Bristol because he saw it as a place of opportunity.

"He was a very sociable person," Mr Ige said.

"He was a friend of everybody, he would chat with any person and he had a good sense of humour.

"People liked him. His English was poor but he was learning."