A hospital worker has been cleared of killing his friend after they watched the Champions League final together.

Przemyslaw Lepkowski, 24, who worked at St George’s Hospital, Tooting, as a porter, was found in the front garden of a property in Eastbourne Road, Tooting, on May 19.

He died in intensive care two days later.

A post-mortem examination concluded he died after the vagus nerve in his neck was crushed.

Daniel Janik, 30, a fellow Polish national and hospital worker, was found not guilty of murder and manslaughter on Monday after a seven day trial at the Old Bailey.

Earlier the court heard the pair had been watching the Champions League final between Chelsea and Bayern Munich at Mr Janik’s home in Eastbourne Road and had been drinking heavily on the evening of his death.

At one point the pair had to be separated after they began grabbing each other around the throat and "strangling" each other in an apparent show of strength.

Mr Lepkowski, of Thornton Avenue, Croydon, was later asked to leave the party but was followed out of the house by Mr Janik who returned about 10 minutes later telling his friends that Mr Lepkowski was outside lying on the pavement.

Mr Lionel Blackman defending argued that Mr Janik acted in self defence and that a rare phenomenon of “vagal nerve inhibition”, combined with alcohol and adrenalin, had made Mr Lepkowski’s heart more sensitive to sudden and unexpected arrests causing his death. 

Both men sustained injuries to their necks which Mr Blackman said was consistent with the pair’s “mutual squeezing” of each other’s necks as they were side by side.

Mr Lepkowski had sustained 35 injuries at the time of this death whereas Mr Janik had 61 injuries.

The men both worked at St George’s Hospital in Tooting and were known to be "good friends."