A SCOT convicted of the murder of an 11-year-old boy in Bulgaria has revealed he plans to appeal against his conviction after being found guilty of the crime for the second time.
David Bell Bryson, described as a paedophile in Bulgarian press reports, was originally convicted in 2013 of murdering Stanislav Mirchov in the village of Lagoshevtsi, in the northwest of the country.
He successfully appealed to Bulgaria's Supreme Court in January this year and a retrial was instructed.
The 75-year-old, who was born in Larkhall, South Lanarkshire, has now been convicted of murdering the boy "in an unusually cruel manner" for the second time and has been sentenced to 18 years in a high security prison.
In the most recent trial, which took place last month, Deputy District Attorney Vladislav Vlashev told the court Bryson had committed a "sadistic" crime.
He said: "The murder of a child is the gravest crime in criminal and human laws."
Stanislav disappeared on January 4, 2012, and his body was found two weeks later. An autopsy showed that he had been strangled to death.
Bryson was arrested and charged with murder after he failed a lie detector test.
He initially made a full confession saying he had killed the boy in anger because the youngster had tortured and poisoned his dog, but he later changed his plea to not guilty.
The murderer claimed he had confessed due to police pressure after one of the officers "hypnotised him with a black bible with a silver cross".
More recently, he claimed that he may have been drugged by officers.
Bryson has now confirmed that he plans to appeal again and his lawyer has already lodged his intention to do so at the Court of Appeal in Sofia.
The pensioner, who was convicted in Vidin Regional Court, was ordered to pay 100,000 Bulgarian Levs (£36,000) in compensation to his victim's family. He has already paid them 100,000 Levs.
However, following the first trial which resulted in the same sentence, the boy's father, Veselin Mirchev, said he was not satisfied with the punishment, adding that he wished Bulgaria still had the death penalty.
Forensic examinations of the boy revealed he had been involved in sexual activity before he died, but no charges of this nature were brought against Bryson, who still has family in Scotland.
Reports suggested he paid the boy to do odd jobs around his home and took photos of him as he did so.
Villager Veselka Kostova said: "I only spoke to him a couple of times. He said he'd come to Bulgaria because it was cheaper and his pension would last longer than in Scotland.
"He told me he was divorced and had three children - daughters.
"He would sometimes hire local children to help him with repairs around the house, and he photographed them."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel