Man who stabbed journalist in chest after drunken row jailed for 9 years

Published on 20/12/2012 11:07

A KILLER trapped after police followed a trail of blood was jailed for nine years today.

• Kyle Montgomery jailed for 9 years after drunken row broke out at home

• Thomas Allwood, 55, bled to death after being stabbed in chest

An earlier trial heard how Australian journalist Thomas Allwood, 55, died after a drunken row at a house in West Lothian.

Kyle Montgomery, 25, followed him - armed with a knife - and stabbed Mr Allwood once in the chest, severing a major blood vessel.

A jury rejected Montgomery’s claim that he had only meant to scare Mr Allwood and that the stabbing had been an accident.

Sentencing Montgomery of 3 Craigton Court, Winchburgh, at the High Court in Edinburgh, judge Lord Doherty told him: “The stabbing was deliberate. You were not acting in self defence or under provocation.”

But, he told him, he could take account of the fact that Mr Allwood started the argument that night and was the first to resort to violence.

The judge said being drunk was no excuse and he did not take much account of the fact that the single fatal blow had required only moderate force.

“Sharp weapons of the sort you used are capable of inflicting grievous injuries with only moderate force,” said Lord Doherty. “Those who use them must expect the courts to deal with them severely.”

After the stabbing in Broxburn on June 21, Montgomery was charged with murder - which he denied. A jury found him guilty of a reduced charge of culpable homicide.

The trial heard how Montgomery’s hard-drinking dad, Robert, 65, went to his local pub that night with £20 which his son had given him as a Father’s Day present.

He returned with Mr Allwood and Mr Allwood’s girlfriend, Maggie.

A row broke out after Mr Allwood’s girlfriend began stroking Montgomery’s hand and putting her head on his lap.

Mr Montgomery senior came into the room to find Mr Allwood apparently strangling his son and threw the Australian out of the house.

Mr Allwood came back to the house, banging on the door and trying to get in. He was like “a raging bull” said Robert Montgomery.

The trial heard how his son grabbed a bread knife and followed Mr Allwood. He returned minutes later with the blood-stained knife and confessed he had done something bad.

Mr Allwood bled to death almost instantly in Clarkson Road, Broxburn, and police called to the scene followed a trail of blood to the Montgomery house where they found the knife.

Scots-born Mr Allwood grew up in Australia where he worked for INL News Group.

He helped produce a show featuring performers on the Edinburgh Fringe.