A man murdered a former soldier by slashing him across the neck was today jailed for life.

Christopher Philp killed father-of-two Stephen Pinker outside the Corner House pub, in Hollow Way, Cowley, Oxford, with a 6in filleting knife.

The unemployed father-of-one threatened to kill Mr Pinker after the pair had a row about the Royal Marines hooded top Philp was wearing.

Mr Pinker, 43, a former soldier in the Royal Green Jackets, died in the street after telling his fiancee Rebecca Holmes he loved her. Oxford Crown Court heard Philp, 26, who had a history of violence, threw the knife into trees near Wood Farm as he fled from the scene covered in blood.

Damien Smith, who ran the Corner House pub at the time of the murder on March 25, said he tried to stop Philp from threatening Mr Pinker.

He said: “They were just squaring up to each other, face to face. I felt uneasy so I put my hand in the middle. They were eyeballing each other.”

Mr Smith said he realised Mr Pinker had been stabbed and ran to the bar to grab towels to stem the bleeding, before calling 999.

Miss Holmes said Philp came out from the pub while Mr Pinker was smoking outside. She said: “He lunged towards Stephen’s neck. Steve then put his hand on his neck and collapsed straight to the floor.

“He could not breathe. He tried to tell me that he loved me, but he could not manage to get anything else out.

“People tried to resuscitate him, but he had gone.“ Pub regular Stephen Hemmings said Philp had pulled a knife from his boxer shorts in the pub toilet and said he was going to hurt Mr Pinker.

Hannah Alder, who was drinking in the pub, said Philp told her he was going to kill Mr Pinker. She said: “He said ‘I am going to rip his flesh off. This guy has a lot of meat on him and that is how I like them’.”

Philp told the court he had drunk about 15 pints of beer — and was high on cocaine. He said: “It was just a stupid argument. It just went too far. I wanted to hurt him but not to kill him.”

When police searched Philp’s house in Leiden Road, Wood Farm, they found a stash of knives including a 12in machete. Philp admitted murder, but said he had not meant to kill Mr Pinker — a claim Judge Anthony King rejected.

Sentencing him to life, with a minimum of 14 years, Judge King said: “You stabbed him to death with a single blow. The offence arose out of a totally ridiculous argument about whether you should be wearing a Royal Marines top. You were carrying a vicious knife.

“You drew that knife, but kept it concealed and although he had not raised his hand to you, you deliberately stabbed him. He was immediately killed.”