Brian Faulds murder: Brothers jailed for life for ‘horrific’ attack

By JOHN ROBERTSON
Published on 25/07/2012 15:11

TWO brothers who murdered a man nicknamed “Nightmare” in a horrific attack have been jailed for life and ordered to serve at least 24 years in prison.

A judge told Paul and Adam Christie that the killing of Brian Faulds by at least 30 blows to the head with a variety of weapons had shown a level of cruelty and inhumanity rarely seen in Scotland’s courts.

A huge security operation, including armed police, had been mounted for the case at the High Court in Edinburgh, and friends and family of the victim screamed hatred at the brothers as they were led away to begin their sentences.

“We are going to get youse,” was the yelled promise.

Paul Christie, 29, and Adam Christie, 27, admitted murdering Mr Faulds, 29, a father of two, on 27 September last year in Paul Christie’s home, by binding him with tape and striking him with a knife, a cleaver, axes, a hammer and a baseball bat.

They also pleaded guilty, with a third brother, Bryan Christie, 22, to attempting to defeat the ends of justice by setting fire to the body at the River Clyde walkway near Dalmarnock bridge, and redecorating and bleaching the flat to try to remove traces of blood and body tissue.

The court heard Mr Faulds was nicknamed “Nightmare” and was well-known in the Bridgeton area. He had been released from prison about two weeks before his death, and had met Paul Christie in the street. He had nowhere to stay and Christie allowed him the use of his flat if he was not there.

Christie was wakened in the early hours by Mr Faulds and another man in the flat. Before they had roused him, the other man had stolen Christie’s mobile phone. The trio sat drinking until the other man left.

The advocate-depute, Andrew Brown, QC, said Mr Faulds was savagely beaten to death in the bedroom.

“A variety of weapons were used, though precisely what form his ordeal took may never be known,” he added.

An upstairs neighbour, Louise Mixter , reported being wakened by vibrations from the bedroom below. She heard people grappling, thumping and hitting off walls, but only a muffled voice.

She told police: “It was the eerie quietness of the vibrations that really creeped me out.”

The smouldering body of Mr Faulds was found a couple of hours later by a man walking to work along the Clyde Walkway. He had been taken from the flat in a wheelie bin, and turps was poured on the body before it was set alight. The weapons were thrown into the river.

Paul Christie confided to a friend that his phone had been stolen and that he and his brother attacked Mr Faulds, leaving his head in four bits and his face split down the middle.

“Adam was like a psycho and just wouldn’t stop,” he had stated.

Lord Tyre told the killers: “The violence you inflicted on Brian Faulds was horrific. The post mortem report and the photographs I have seen bear witness to a vicious and sustained attack. Only you know why this happened. But what is clear is you inflicted at least 30 blows to the victim’s head with bladed weapons and the injuries which resulted were truly dreadful. A large number of defensive injuries afford the clear indication he was conscious and attempted to defend himself.”

The judge said life imprisonment was mandatory for murder, and he also had to set the minimum period to be served before the men could apply for parole. The period had to recognise that the”cruelty and inhumanity” in this case was “much higher than in most cases of murder that come before this court.”

Lord Tyre stressed that whether the brothers were freed after 24 years depended on the parole board’s being satisfied that they were no longer a danger to the public.

Sentence on Bryan Christie was deferred until next month.