Scott Stephenson and Dale Walker took the 22-year-old victim’s only lifeline when they pocketed his iPhone and left him to die from hypothermia.
A court heard they had seen him fall in the back lane in South Shields, South Tyneside, on a cold, wet night last December.
All three got off a Metro train at the town’s Chichester station when the victim fell to the ground.
© SWNS Group 
The promising engineer, who had been on a works night out, was found dead, still lying in the lane, early the next morning.
Stephenson, 19, rifled through the man’s pockets. He admitted theft and was jailed for two years.
He has more than 50 previous convictions and was on bail and a suspended sentence order at the time, sticking his fingers up to waiting media at a previous court appearance.
Walker, 25, who took the phone to sell on, admitted handling stolen goods, and was jailed for 10 months.
Northumbria Police/PA Wire 
“However callous and despicable you were in showing utter contempt and disregard rather than humanity for a young man, I cannot sentence you on that basis.
“In his vulnerable condition, you stole from him the sole means of communication he had with the outside world, his mobile phone, which he could have used if he had woken up to summons help.
"You increased his vulnerability by so doing.”
The victim had been out with work colleagues in Newcastle on December 16 last year and was making his way home when he got off the metro.
He had been talking to Stephenson and Walker and suggested they continue socialising after they got off the Metro but tripped and fell when the two men decided to run away.
Holding back tears, the victim’s father, who asked for the family not to be named, said his son went out of his way to help people.
He added: “He was loved so much by so many. He was kind, caring and intelligent. As a family, we will never get over his death.”
© SWNS Group 
His dad had told his son he would give him a lift home, which he declined.
He added their lives were ‘torn apart’ when they heard he had died. “The pain and distress was unbearable,” he said.
They had been tortured knowing he had been left to die. “We all want to know what our son’s last words were.
"Was he frightened? Did he know he was going to die?” he said.
“They stole his mobile phone, his only means of summonsing help. My son was killed that night, killed through hypothermia and the gross negligence of these two people.
"He was lying there in the cold. What would have been obvious to any reasonable person that, if left alone in the conditions that night, he was likely to die.”
Northumbria Police/PA Wire 
“They both admitted being in the company of the victim and leaving the Metro with him at Chichester. They tried to run away from him and he followed but fell.
"They left him slumped against the fence at the entrance to the basketball court. They say they returned some 30 minutes to an hour later to check on his welfare.
“Stephenson eventually admitted to having gone through the victim’s pockets then to stealing his iPhone while the victim was apparently sleeping and snoring.”
Judge Mairs did not accept Stephenson and Walker had returned to check his welfare, but to take ‘what they could’.
The iPhone, which Walker helped Stephenson to sell, has never been recovered.