A KILLER who was captured after police followed a trail of blood has been jailed for nine years.

An earlier trial heard how journalist Thomas Allwood, 55, died after a drunken row at a house in West Lothian.

Kyle Montgomery, 25, followed Mr Allwood and stabbed him in the chest in Clarkson Road, Broxburn, severing a blood vessel.

A jury rejected Montgomery's claim that he had only meant to scare Mr Allwood and that the stabbing had been an accident.

Sentencing Montgomery, of Winchburgh, West Lothian, at the High Court in Edinburgh, judge Lord Doherty said: "The stabbing was deliberate. You were not acting in self-defence."

But, he told him, he could take account of the fact that Mr Allwood started the argument and was the first to resort to violence.

The judge said being drunk was no excuse and he did not take much account of the fact that the single fatal blow had required only moderate force.

"Sharp weapons of the sort you used are capable of inflicting grievous injuries with only moderate force," said Lord Doherty. "Those who use them must expect to be dealt with severely."

After the stabbing on June 21, Montgomery was charged with murder, which he denied. A jury found him guilty of a reduced charge of culpable homicide.

Scots-born Mr Allwood grew up in Australia, where he worked for INL News Group. He also helped produce a show for the Edinburgh Fringe.