Heartbroken family and friends of a 14-year-old boy murdered in a Glasgow train station have set up a fundraiser in his memory.
More than £1,500 has been raised so far for Justin McLaughlin's family in less than one hour.
The family hope to use the money to give Justin the "best send off he deserves".
The schoolboy was found seriously injured in High Street station in the city centre on Saturday.
READ MORE: Teen who died in train station horror named as police launch murder probe
Police have since launched a murder inquiry after the teenager died in hospital shortly after he was found.
His heartbroken aunt, Maggie, paid tribute to her "precious nephew", and says he was the "biggest gentle giant with a smile that would take up the full world".
On the fundraiser page, Maggie wrote: "If there is anything anyone can contribute to help give Justin the best send of he deserves it would be amazing as this has come as a shock to all our friends and family, Justin’s friends everyone who knew him.
"Can’t believe I'm needing to do this but anything at all to help is appreciated."
Justin's headteacher, James McParland, said the community had been "shocked" by Justin McLaughlin's death.
The Glasgow Times reports that Mr McParland, who leads St. Ambrose High School in Coatbridge, said his loss will be felt across the school.
In a statement he said: "The community of St Ambrose High School is shocked and saddened by the death of Justin McLaughlin.
"Justin was a valued member of our community and his loss will be felt by staff and pupils alike.
"Our prayers and thoughts are with his family and friends, and additional pastoral support will be available to young people within the school on their return on Monday morning."
Detective Chief Inspector Brian Geddes, of Police Scotland’s Major Investigation Team and the Senior Investigating Officer, said: "Our thoughts very much remain with Justin's family and friends. His family have asked for their privacy to be respected at this very difficult time, and they are being supported by specialist officers.
READ MORE: Changes to more than 80 trains today after death of teen at Glasgow station
"Although enquiries are at an early stage, what we do know is that an incident took place at High Street train station and we are sure that there will be people who may have witnessed something in the lead up to this.
"The area would have been busy with members of the public and commuters and we are urging those who have any information, no matter how small, to get in contact with police.”
Detective Inspector Marc Francey, of British Transport Police, said: "This was a shocking act of violence in broad daylight, which has seen a boy tragically lose his life.
"We are working closely with Police Scotland and doing all we can to find those responsible, and I would urge any witnesses, or anyone who was in the area at the time and saw anything suspicious, to contact us as soon as possible.
"We will also be increasing our uniformed patrols in the local area in the coming days to help reassure the travelling public."
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