Teenager sentenced for unprovoked knife attack

A teenager who murdered a father of two by stabbing him repeatedly in an unprovoked attack was locked up for 12 years today.

Blair Campbell was just 16 when he knifed John Miller 13 times in his neck, head and body.

At the High Court in Edinburgh Judge Lady Stacey was told Campbell became angry when Mr Miller made "sexual banter" with a woman Campbell was besotted with.

Campbell, now 17, said after the attack: "Let that be a lesson to you."

The teenager, who aspired to join the armed forces, earlier pleaded guilty to murdering the 37-year-old father of two at a house in Prestwick, Ayrshire, on November 27 last year.

At the High Court in Edinburgh Lady Stacey sentenced Campbell to detention without limit of time and told him he must spend at least 12 years behind bars.

The judge, who took Campbell's age and early guilty plea into account, told him: "What you did on the 27th of November last year was wicked. You took another man's life.

"Nothing that anyone can say or do can take away the loss and the grief that his family and those close to him must feel.

"You have also brought great stress on your own family."

Mr Miller's fiancee, Tracey Shaw, 35, said her partner's killer should "rot in hell".

Branding the sentence "shocking", she said Campbell should have been locked up for twice as long.

Ms Shaw, who is also the mother of Mr Miller's young daughter, said of Campbell's sentence: "It's not enough. His age shouldn't matter. He's 17 years old.

"He should rot in hell, 12 years is not enough, definitely not. It should be double that.

"He's going to be 29 when he gets out. He'll still have all his life ahead of him."

Ms Shaw, who was with Mr Miller for nine years, said his daughter and 19-year-old son have now been left without a father.

She described her partner as a "great-natured guy" who "joked with everybody" and said Campbell turned on him for no reason.

Recalling the moment she found out about his death, she said: "I just couldn't believe it. I was shocked, I just collapsed on to the ground when I found out.

"My wee girl always asks: Where's daddy? Where's daddy?

"I hope he knows that he's taken a young baby's dad away and a teenager's dad."