A man who has now been convicted twice of frightening people to their deaths was jailed for five years yesterday.

In 1992 an 82-year-old woman suffered a fatal heart attack after John Waldie broke into her home, and in December last year a 33-year-old man plunged to his death from a seventh floor window as he tried to escape a ferocious attack from Waldie.

In both cases Waldie, 30, was convicted of culpable homicide.

Waldie had denied killing Terence Kivlin, of Ferry Road, Edinburgh, by repeatedly hitting him on the head, shouting and swearing at him, and placing him in a state of fear and alarm so that he fell from a window, but was convicted after trial.

Lord Milligan said that the easy option would be to look at both this incident and the 1992 case to decide what jail sentence to impose this time, but he did not consider that was fair in the interests of justice.

''As far as this incident in isolation is concerned I am prepared to accept this is in a very different category to the 1992 incident in that the deceased clearly did assault you earlier in the evening and you were very aggrieved by that,'' said Lord Milligan.

''The other main point I take into account is that while, without justification, you attacked him quite severely in your flat, the prospect of him seeking to get out of the flat through the window was never contemplated by you for a moment.''

The judge heard how Waldie became involved in an argument with Mr Kivlin, 33, in a Leith pub on Boxing Day last year.

Mr Kivlin attacked Waldie but following the incident the two men returned together to Waldie's flat nearby at Kirkgate House.

A witness, Mr Ronnie Smith, told how Waldie came out of the kitchen brandishing the leg of a coffee table and struck Mr Kivlin over the head. Mr Smith said he went into another room from where he looked out moments later to see Mr Kivlin lying below on the forecourt.

Miss Victoria Young, defence counsel, described the case as a tragic and unusual one in which Waldie felt that what ultimately happened was beyond his control.

''Obviously, he regrets what happened to the deceased but feels some confusion as to where responsibility for that lies,'' she said.

The victim's sisters, Caroline and Laura, wept uncontrollably as Lord Milligan imposed the five-year sentence, and the dead man's brother-in-law, Mr Ken Marr, said afterwards: ''Justice has not been seen to be done. We are very upset at the sentence. It's a bloody disgrace.''

In the 1992 incident Waldie was originally charged with the murder of widow Mrs Rose McCrudden who lived alone in Iona Street, Leith, and suffered from senile dementia to such an extent that she still thought her husband was alive.

The Crown accepted a plea to a reduced charge of culpable homicide, again at the High Court in Edinburgh.

The court heard how the elderly woman died of a combination of fright, heart failure, a minor assault, and a crude attempt by Waldie to resuscitate her.

She panicked and collapsed with a heart attack when she suddenly encountered Waldie after he broke into her flat.

Waldie tried desperately to revive her with the kiss of life and heart massage but succeeded only in cracking one of her ribs, the court heard.

The judge, Lord Caplan, accepted that Waldie had no intention of harming the old lady but added: ''The sad fact is that if you had not broken into this house there is a possibility that the lady may still have been alive.''