A man who clubbed a teenager to death with a pool cue then bragged about it later was jailed for life yesterday.
The attack on 16-year-old Stephen Brady was so vicious the cue broke in pieces.
Unaware the boy was dying, Thomas Stewart, 37, told friends : ''If someone hadn't pulled me off him, I would have killed him.''
The High Court in Glasgow heard that Stewart also boasted: ''I kept hitting him until the cue was the size of a pencil.''
Stephen, of Waulkingmill Road, Clydebank, suffered skull and facial bone fractures and died from brain damage in hospital next day.
A jury found Stewart, of Faifley Road, Faifley, guilty by a majority of murdering the teenager in a video shop at Glasgow Road, Hardgate, on February 5 this year.
The murder charge against co-accused Stuart McInnes, 32, of Langfaulds Crescent, Faifley, was found not proven and he walked free from court.
A neighbour of Stewart, Ms Elizabeth Murray, 35, told the court about the boasts. She said she was in Stewart's house, where he was drinking with McInnes and others, when she also heard him saying: ''Something flew off. I think it was a piece of his ear.''
The court heard there was trouble that night with a crowd of teenagers outside the video shop where Ms Pamela Stewart, the accused's sister, was working.
She was about to close at 10pm with 19-year-old Jennifer Wood when 16-year-old Graham Richards ran in, chased by Christopher Mullen, also 16. As the youths battled behind the counter, Pamela ran to the bar next door and shouted that teenagers armed with baseball bats were robbing the shop.
The jury saw a video of men grabbing pool cues and rushing to the shop, led by Stewart.
They pushed past armed teenagers crowded round the doorway and Stewart came face to face with Stephen, whom he claimed was wielding a baseball bat.
Witnesses told Mr Philip Brodie QC, prosecuting they saw Stewart hitting the teenager with his pool cue and heard the crack as it broke.
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 hereComments are closed on this article