On Buckfast, on valium, on cider and on probation: teenage girl turned killer

A JUDGE condemned the rise of "drunken teenage hooliganism" as he sentenced a girl killer to almost seven years' detention for leaving a father of two dead with a single punch.

Kayleigh Murray, 19, herself a mother of two, attacked Paul Woods, 29, after a friend had mugged him of a carry-out outside an off-licence.

She struck him one blow to the face, and he fell back and smashed his head off the ground, suffering a fractured skull and damage to his brain, from which he never recovered.

Lord Pentland told Murray, of Etive Street, Shettleston, Glasgow, that her senseless violence had devastated the lives of Mr Woods's family.

"He was a young man with a loving partner and two young children. He and they were looking forward to a happy future together. While you did not intend to kill Mr Woods, there is no doubt that drunken violence… can, all too often, result in tragic consequences," said Lord Pentland at the High Court in Edinburgh.

The offence had involved a "high degree of unruly and antisocial drunken hooliganism" and he added: "There is serious public concern about the prevalence of such behaviour, and the courts, in my view, must do what they can to punish those who participate in it and to deter others from engaging in it."

Murray admitted the culpable homicide of Mr Woods, of Glenavon Road, Glasgow, on 28 July last year in Maryhill Road, Glasgow.

Lord Pentland imposed a ten-year extended sentence - custody of six years and nine months followed by supervision of three years and three months.

A co-accused, Chelsea Speirs, 19, of Castlelaw Gardens, Glasgow, pleaded guilty to assaulting and robbing Mr Woods. She had a previous conviction for a carbon-copy offence. Lord Pentland sentenced her to detention for two years and three months, and supervision on release for 12 months.

Mr Woods and friends had watched a football match in a pub, and then he went to an off-licence for a carry-out. As he came out, Speirs grabbed his carrier bag, struggled with him and fled with the bag.

Mr Woods tried to go after her, but Murray walked up to him and punched him on the right cheek.

The advocate-depute, Shanti Rao, said Mr Woods fell and landed on the road, striking the left side of his head.

"He immediately lost consciousness and did not move again," said Ms Rao. Murray boarded a bus, while Speirs stayed with another friend who tried to help Mr Woods. He died in hospital next day.

The defence counsel, Donald Findlay, QC, said Murray, who had a son aged four and a daughter of two, would have to live the rest of her days with the knowledge she had contributed to the death of another human being.Lord Pentland said Murray, despite her age, appeared to have become addicted to drink and regularly took drugs. She had convictions for assault, breach of the peace and shoplifting, and had been on probation at the time of the killing.

"You were heavily intoxicated on a cocktail of Buckfast wine, cider and valium. No sentence I impose can begin to undo or compensate for the lasting devastation you have brought about for so many innocent people by your drunken violence," said the judge.

He told Speirs: "The Crown has accepted that you have no criminal responsibility for causing the tragic death of Mr Woods."