Two men jailed for killing teenager in street attack

Two men who killed a young man after hearing claims he had assaulted a teenage girl have been jailed for a total of 26 years.

Sean Banks was stabbed to death last September. His attackers both face custodial sentences. Picture: Contributed

Sean Banks, 18, was stabbed through the heart by Paul Kane, 25, in a street attack. He was helped by Liam Donnelly, 19. The High Court in Glasgow heard they acted after Chloe Brennan, 16, alleged that Mr Banks had hit her.

The court heard how Brennan wanted Mr Banks battered. The two men attacked their victim, of Viewpark, Lanarkshire, in nearby Uddingston, in September 2015.

Kane, 25, was convicted of Mr Banks’s murder following a trial last month. He has 16 previous convictions, which are mostly for violence. His co-accused Donnelly, of Bothwell, Lanarkshire, was found guilty of culpable homicide.

Yesterday, at the High Court in Edinburgh, judge Lord Armstrong jailed Kane for life and told him that would have to serve at least 17 years before he would be able to apply for parole. Donnelly was ordered to be detained for nine years at a Young Offenders Institution.

Passing sentence, Lord Armstrong said he had no other option but to impose custodial sentences.

He added: “There is nothing that I can say which can compensate the family and relatives of Sean Banks for their loss. There is also no sentence which I can impose which will be sufficient in their eyes.

“However, there is only one sentence which I can impose in these circumstances.”

During evidence, jurors had earlier heard how Brennan had called Donnelly asking him to “batter” Mr Banks. In evidence, Brennan said: “Paul asked if Sean had any weapons on him. I said someone earlier mentioned he had a knife. Paul said, ‘I have a bigger one’.”

Brennan thought he was only joking. However, Kane later called back and told her: “That’s it done.”

The trial heard Mr Banks was stabbed four times after being confronted. But Kane insisted he did not strike the teenager deliberately, adding: “I can’t remember stabbing him.”

He went on: “I didn’t mean for him to die. He kept coming at me.”

Prosecutor Iain McSporran branded the killing “a brutal, unprovoked multiple stabbing”.

Kane’s advocate Mark Stewart QC told the court yesterday: “He appreciates the gravity of the offence … Mr Kane knows a custodial sentence is inevitable.”