A woman who was like a wild animal when she brutally murdered a mother-of-two after a silly row has been caged for life.
A trial heard how Lorraine Foy's teenage daughters saw their 36-year-old mum stabbed to death in an attack in Glasgow street.
Minutes earlier there had been a "shouting match" as Tracy Meikle, 33, stood at her first floor window in Crowlin Crescent, Cranhill, and Ms Foy stood in the street outside, accusing Meikle of head-butting a 14-year-old girl.
Meikle had been taking Valium washed down with Buckfast and cider, judge Lord Jones was told.
Ordering Meikle to serve at least 15 years before she can apply for release on licence the judge told her he had read accounts from Ms Foy's daughters and other relatives on the impact of her death.
"It is clear that the whole family has been devastated by the utterly pointless and cruel murder," he said.
Lord Jones noted that background reports also said Meikle very much regretted what she had done but added: "None of that, however, can undo the damage you caused."
The High Court in Edinburgh was packed with friends and Foy family members and one man was pulled away by police when he ran forward as Meikle was being led to the cells.
Defence QC Gordon Jackson, pleading for leniency, said the murder "arose out of nothing."
Meikle could remember little of what happened, said the lawyer.
"She never really denied that she was the person involved in this but doesn't know how it happened or why it happened. It was just something out of nothing."
Mr Jackson added that Meikle had a history of being abused, broken relationships and drink and drugs.
But since she had sobered up in Cornton Vale she had become a pleasant and sensible young woman - which made the tragedy all the greater.
At her trial, Meikle claimed she had been acting in self defence. But a jury rejected her claim and found her guilty of murder.
They heard how last June 22 Ms Foy and her daughters took a taxi to Crowlin Crescent to speak to Meikle.
After the exchange of words, Meikle armed herself with a kitchen knife and came down the stair.
Ms Foy was unarmed and had nothing in her hand except a packet of cigarettes.
Daughter Amy, 13, told the trial: "I shouted to my mum: 'She's got a knife up her sleeve' but mum never heard me and they started fighting."
Meikle struggled to get the knife out, said Amy. "Then she did and stabbed my mum in the neck."
Ms Foy's friend, Michelle Cochrane, 41, said she tried to pull Meikle away. "She was like a wild animal stabbing into Lorraine's neck. She was just blank. It was a frenzied knife attack."
Although the incident lasted only seconds, she was stabbed five times and wounds to her neck severed major blood vessels.
Ms Cochrane told how her friend lay in the street bleeding badly as she pleaded: "Lorraine, stay awake, stay awake."
An ambulance, called by a neighbour, was quickly on the scene but doctors were unable to save Ms Foy.
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