Man wins murder conviction appeal

Published on Tuesday 25 November 2008 23:27

A MAN found guilty of stabbing a teenage boy to death in a school playground yesterday had his murder conviction overturned.

Derek Ferguson, 26, was jailed for the knife attack on Steven Pettigrew, 16, in April 2005 after being released early from prison.

He was ordered to serve at least 18 years in prison in December 2005 after being found guilty of murdering the teenager at the school in Airdrie, Lanarkshire.

But judges yesterday ruled that there had been a miscarriage of justice as the trial judge did not give the jury the option of returning the lesser verdict of culpable homicide.

The Crown can now seek a fresh prosecution or an attempt could be made to reduce the conviction from one of murder to culpable homicide.

At the Appeal Court in Edinburgh, Lord Osborne said: "We conclude that the omission of the trial judge to give a direction in relation to culpable homicide was a material misdirection resulting in a miscarriage of justice."

At the trial in 2005, the High Court in Edinburgh heard the attack happened on 1 April that year, after a late-night row in a hut at the school playground.

Steven Pettigrew had gathered with friends to drink and listen to music but was assaulted and suffered a deep stab wound to his back. The teenager died later in hospital.

Ferguson, who denied murder, had been released early from prison at the time of the attack. He was jailed for eight years for an axe attack in 1999, but was freed in 2004.

Two of Ferguson's cousins, James McCormick and Gary Black, were convicted for their involvement in the assault on Steven Pettigrew.