Victim had his ear cut off as a memento

Published on Thursday 2 April 2009 22:18

A KILLER and his girlfriend smirked and laughed yesterday as a court heard how a man was murdered and had his ear cut off as a memento.

Stuart McKelvie, 27, stripped, beat and stabbed James Taylor, 29, before pouring petrol on him and setting it alight. Fiona McKay, 42, also took part in the attack by kicking Mr Taylor on the head and in the privates.

The victim, whom the pair had suspected of stealing their drugs, was left in woods and took hours to die. His body was found by children.

McKelvie and McKay were in the dock of the High Court in Edinburgh as details were given of the murder. Throughout, they cast glances at each other and smiled, enraging friends of the dead man in the public benches, who shouted "scum".

The court heard that Mr Taylor, from Wester Hailes, Edinburgh, and McKelvie and McKay, of Hailesland Gardens, also Wester Hailes, all belonged to the drugs community. On 17 October last year, Mr Taylor was released from prison, where he had been serving a two-year sentence for housebreaking, and spent the night at the couple's flat.

The next day, they went by train to Lanarkshire where they were joined by McKelvie's brother, Christopher McKelvie, 22.

A likely sequence of events, suggested by a pathologist, was that Mr Taylor had been punched and kicked and possibly struck about the head with a stick, and drifted in and out of consciousness.

"At post-mortem examination, a total of 57 injuries were noted. Burns involved approximately 30 per cent of the total body surface area," said advocate-depute, Leanne Cross.

Christopher McKelvie's not guilty plea to murder was accepted by the Crown and he was freed from the dock.

Lord Kinclaven deferred sentence on Stuart McKelvie and McKay until later this month, and remanded both in custody.