Once again I was dutifully squelching through the corpses of the murdered in order to keep my roll-tally up to date (see Murder Inc., passim) when I came across this story, the outcome of a murder I tagged last September. All I had at the time was a note that a man of 24 had been killed in a flat in Paisley, Glasgow. Now the miscreants have appeared in court and have been found guilty. They are a young man of 20, his partner, a girl of 18, and her sister who is 17. The youth is Stephen Price and he stabbed the victim not once, not twice, not even three times - but 80 times! That takes real dedication to the task in hand, that does. His girl friend helped out by stabbing the victim a couple of times more and then, blood-stained, they both posed by the body so that the other girl could take their photograph on her mobile 'phone. All three then went to considerable lengths to cover up their part in the crime.
The Jock MacCocklecarrot in charge of this trial, Lord Brodie, had plenty of time to think long and hard over his sentencing decision because he waited for a psychiatric report on Price - why, I do not know. The content of this report was not reported but m' Lord Brodie-MacCocklecarrot having taken 5 weeks to ponder the punishment, it would have taken me 5 seconds on a bad day, finally came down with his judgement - a minimum sentence of 15 years. Thus, all you Glaswegian Jocks can look forward happily to the future knowing that this homicidal thug will be back on your streets in 2023. What about the girls, you ask? Well, his co-murderess, the one who got in a couple of stabs of her own, drew all of 7 years but you can all relax up there in Jockland because when she comes out she will be, er, "supervised" for 3 years - so that's alright then! The other little hag drew 27 months in a youth detention centre and she will be "supervised" for a year on release.
Do we have a law and order problem? Of course not, just ask your average Guardian reader, it's all got up by the Daily Mail. Nothing wrong with Glasgow either - European City of Culture, wasn't it?
Additional: In my fury as I spat out the story above I forgot to pass on a friendly warning to my e-friend, Clairwil, who lives in Glasgow and who reported recently on an alarming incident in which she was menaced by half a dozen 'MacYoufs' late at night. She, a very feisty lady, is made of sterner stuff than me, so much so that I was almost impelled to report her to Social Services for cruelty to yobs. But, please, Clairwil, have a care!
"...they both posed by the body so that the other girl could take their photograph on her mobile 'phone. All three then went to considerable lengths to cover up their part in the crime."
Let me get this straight - they took a picture. Then tried to cover up their crime...?
Posted by: JuliaM | Wednesday, 26 March 2008 at 08:41
Yes, indeed, they obviously failed their GCSEs in 'Murder'! "Could do better" is the appropriate summary, and perhaps, given a few years to dwell on their errors of omission and commission, they no doubt will when they get out.
Posted by: David Duff | Wednesday, 26 March 2008 at 11:44
Thanks for the warning, I shall try to be more alert on my travels.
Posted by: Clairwil | Wednesday, 02 April 2008 at 01:08