THE killer of a Scottish teenager was jailed for six years yesterday in Germany.
Trainee marine engineer John Gracie, 18, from Skye, plunged to his death from the fourth floor of a block of flats in Bremerhaven, on Germany's North Sea coast, shortly after meeting 20-year-old drifter Mario Turobin last October.
Jailing Turobin on the second degree murder charge at Bremerhaven County Court, presiding judge Justice Steinberg told him he ''utterly rejected'' his claim that Mr Gracie had jumped voluntarily from an open window in the dockside housing scheme where the defendant lived.
Defence counsel Retsel Rothe indicated that he would seek a re-trial.
Public prosecutor Gabi Piontowski had told the trial that Mr Gracie, from Dunvegan, fell to his death just minutes after being struck on the head with a baseball bat wielded by Turobin in the accused's flat in the block.
Although the German admitted in court to ''lightly striking'' the teenager with the bat, who then fled out of the flat and ran up the stairs to the fourth floor of the apartment building, he denied pushing him to his death.
Mr Gracie was on a short shore leave in Bremerhaven as the vessel he was sailing on was discharging its cargo of bananas from the Caribbean. He had met Turobin in the street when he stopped him to ask for a light.
Although communication was difficult because Turobin speaks no English and the Scot had little German, the latter agreed to accompany him back to his flat for a cigarette and to listen to some music.
Turobin, whom the court heard was living a hand-to-mouth existence without any regular income, had previously told the court that he had fallen out with the Scot who had been most unimpressed with the German's collection of 40 pet rats in the flat.
There were no eyewitnesses to the murder, although some residents of the flats have said that they heard screams.
None of Mr Gracie's family was in court to hear the sentence passed as Turobin sat impassively in the dock.
Mr Gracie's father Neil was in court last Friday, the date that the trial had originally been scheduled to finish, but had to return to Scotland to re-join the North Sea oilfield vessel on which he works as an officer.
His son had just finished his first year of studies at Glasgow College of Nautical Studies.
The youngster had been spending his second year getting practical sea-going experience, before intending to resume at the college.
The trainee had just completed his second voyage from the Caribbean to Europe on the cargo ship Chiquita Scandinavian, a Danish-owned vessel designed to carry fruit, especially bananas, from the tropics to Europe.
John Gracie, of Skinidin, Dunvegan, was following in the footsteps of his father, who is an engineering officer in the Merchant Navy. His mother Ann is a native of Skye. He was an only son.
Turobin will begin his sentence in a young offenders' institution, as he is regarded as a minor in German law, being not yet 21-year-old.
Yesterday evening Mr Neil Gracie was travelling back to Skye from Aberdeen to rejoin the vessel Grampian Wood, a North Sea oilfield standby and rescue ship, on which he sails as chief engineer and was unavailable for comment.
On being told of the verdict, Mrs Ann Gracie, said: ''Nothing can ever bring my only son back.
''My husband and myself were both utterly devastated by John's death and we will never really get over what happened in Germany.
''I do not want to say anything more at this stage until I have talked to my husband.''
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