Sentence reduced for killer in bizarre ‘wee stab’ case

By JOHN ROBERTSON
Published on 20/09/2012 14:19

A MAN’S ten-year jail term for a bizarre killing has been cut by two years on appeal.

• Colin McFarlane’s sentence reduced from ten to eight years

• Mark Gallagher was stabbed after a dispute over separate court case

Colin McFarlane, 50, and Mark Gallagher, 37, had struck a deal to end a feud after Mr Gallagher appeared in court charged with stabbing McFarlane’s son.

The men met behind the pavilion of a park in Alexandria, West Dunbartonshire, and Mr Gallagher expected “a wee stab” to the leg in return for the son not identifying him when the case went to court.

McFarlane said: “I’m going to do to you what you did to my boy.” However, he twice plunged a knife deep into Mr Gallagher’s right buttock, and severed a major vein and an artery. Mr Gallagher bled to death.

McFarlane, of Tullichewan, Alexandria, admitted the culpable homicide of Mr Gallagher, of Rosshead, Alexandria, on 15 January, and was jailed for ten years, reduced from 12 years because he had pleaded guilty.

The Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh ruled that a greater discount should have been given for the early plea, and imposed a sentence of eight years.