Family slam sentence given to teenager who murdered pensioner over cigarette

• Nicolle Earley pictured at a previous court appearance

Nicolle Earley was jailed for 14 years today for killing 63-year-old Ann Gray at her home in Crosshill, near Lochgelly in Fife.

Earley brutally assaulted the pensioner after an argument over a borrowed cigarette and 5 she said she was owed.

The victim's family today said the sentence was "a joke" and said Earley should have got a minimum term of up to 30 years behind bars.

Outside court, Mrs Gray's daughters said they hoped Earley is never freed from custody.

Anne-Marie McLeod, 44, said she was "very angry" following today's hearing. "Fourteen years, it's nothing. It's shocking, it really is," she said.

She said she would have liked to have seen a minimum sentence of 20 to 30 years but added: "Obviously that wasn't going to happen. I hope she never gets out. She doesn't deserve it.

"There's no justice today, that's all I can say."

Andrena Gray, 37, added: "It's a joke. My mum's life was worth more than that. The justice system's a joke."

Youngest daughter Anne Gray, 35, blasted Earley's tears in the dock.

"She's probably crying for herself, she's the one that's got to face 14 years away," she said.

"Everybody knows what's right from wrong at the end of the day and she chose to do what she did. She's got to face the consequences of that."

She was just 16 when she killed the pensioner, a family friend, on November 14 2008. Earley, who also lived in the village, is one of the youngest girls in Scotland convicted of murder.

The teenager, now 18, wept in the dock at the High Court in Edinburgh as she was told she would be detained for life.

The judge ordered Earley, who was said to have had a "troubled" background, to spend a minimum of 14 years behind bars for the crime.

Lady Dorrian told her: "The injuries you inflicted were the result of repeated kicking and stamping on the face and body, with a series of blows targeted to the face and neck.

"Mrs Gray had defensive injuries to her hands, indicating she tried to protect herself from your attack."

The judge added that, according to a teacher, violence was "a part of your make-up".

The court previously heard that Earley stayed with her grandmother, who lived on the same street as Mrs Gray.

The two women had known each other for 38 years and Earley was a regular visitor to Mrs Gray's house, where she lived alone.

The victim, a grandmother of 12, was known in Crosshill as a sociable person and, following the death of her husband, regularly allowed young people to come into her house on Inchgall Avenue for a drink.

The court heard that the day before the murder, Mrs Gray had apparently borrowed a cigarette from Earley on the understanding she would be given two in return.

The teenager went to collect them the following evening, along with 5 she said she was owed for doing Mrs Gray's shopping.

An argument followed, in which Earley knocked the pensioner to the ground.

She then launched a frenzied attack, repeatedly kicking her victim on the head and body and stamping on her.

The teenager fled the scene and told her grandmother that she had found Mrs Gray lying in the living room covered in blood.

She said: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I better not get the blame of that."

Pathologists found Mrs Gray died of head injuries. She had suffered fractures to her jaw and cheek, widespread bruising and had a shoe mark in blood on her back.

Solicitor-advocate Gordon Martin, defending, today urged the judge to impose as lenient a sentence as possible and said Earley's young age was significant.

He told the court: "She comes from a particularly troubled background.

"At a very early age she was the victim of abuse. Thereafter, there was intensive social work involvement for a variety of reasons."

The court heard she has expressed some remorse and understood the difficulties experienced by Mrs Gray's family and friends.

"Clearly she is a troubled young woman from a very difficult background who, in her own words, would wish that what happened that November had not happened," said Mr Martin.

"She has to live with the consequences for the rest of her life."