Life in jail for thug who kicked victim to death in drink den

Published on Saturday 4 October 2008 00:57

A VICIOUS thug who kicked a man to death for turning down a drink has been jailed for a minimum of 14 years.

Thomas Muir, 45, paused briefly during his frenzied attack to cover Valentine Dalzell's head with a jacket to stop the blood spraying around.

Muir was sentenced to life imprisonment at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday after being convicted of murdering Mr Dalzell – known as Val – in Clydebank earlier this year.

Judge Lord Menzies told Muir: "This was a vicious, unprovoked murder of a helpless vulnerable victim which involved a horrific degree of violence."

Mr Dalzell, 48, was trying to sleep off a drinking binge under a quilt, wearing only his socks and underpants when Muir attacked him at the drinking den on 21 February.

A murder trial heard that when Mr Dalzell refused another drink, angry Muir challenged him to fight.

He later told police: "He was very cheeky to me. I turned round and said 'Would you like to put your clothes on, mate, and we will go outside and have a square go?' He said 'No' then I jumped for his head."

Muir also told them: "I know I had put a jacket over his head to stop the blood spraying about the house."

He denied murder, claiming someone else could have inflicted the fatal blow but the jury, by majority, found him guilty.

Lord Menzies said Muir would have to serve 14 years before he is able to apply for parole.

"I don't know how many times you kicked, stamped and jumped on Valentine Dalzell's head when he was lying on the floor of the flat at 49 Whitecrook Street on 21 February this year," said the judge.

"In your police interview you estimated that it might have been 40 times. That may or may not be correct.

"What the jury found by their verdict was that you murdered him by repeatedly kicking, stamping and jumping on his head and body and you did previously evince malice and ill will towards him."

"In the sordid surroundings of a drinking den, while Valentine Dalzell was lying under a duvet, naked, defenceless and vulnerable you murdered him.

"I sentence you to life imprisonment."

Mr Dalzell had been evicted from his former home in Drumry after falling on hard times and had slept on the floor at the Whitecrook Street flat, a regular haunt of local alcoholics.

He was five times over the drink-drive limit when he died.

Solicitor Brian Gilfedder, defending, told the jury someone else had stamped on Mr Dalzell and doctors had been unable to say which was the killer blow.