Shotts sex attacker jailed for murder

A "possessed" sex attacker was facing a life sentence today (wed) after brutally murdering a man who went to confront him over the rape of a schoolgirl.

Kenneth Wheeler stabbed Scott Mackenzie to death and wounded the victim's son in a knife attack at his home.

Delivery driver Mr Mackenzie (41) had been enjoying a summer evening with family and friends after a barbecue when he heard of the sex attack on the teenager.

He went to near neighbour Wheeler's home where the fatal assault took place before the murderer turned up at Mr Mackenzie's house with a blood-stained knife threatening to kill his wife.

One teenage witness told the High Court in Edinburgh that Wheeler (33) had come to the Mackenzie home in Shotts, in Lanarkshire, and was trying to get in and was pushing the murder victim's wife forcefully.

She said Wheeler was armed with a big kitchen knife and added: "It was covered in blood."

She said: "It was as though he was possessed. He just had an evil look on his face."

The teenager said she was trying to pull Mr Mackenzie's wife Tracy back until she realised that if she did that "the knife was going to go into her because she had his arm that the knife was in trying to prevent it going near her".

She said the incident ended when police officers arrived and used pepper spray to subdue Wheeler on June 5.

Mr Mackenzie's widow Tracy (39) told the trial that they would have been married for 20 years in July this year.

She said that earlier in the evening Wheeler had called her boring after she had told a teenage girl that she was not allowed a can of fruit cider because of her age.

The drink was poured down the sink but she later formed the impression the girl had been drinking.

She said her front door later burst open and another teenager came in "saying he has raped her".

Mrs Mackenzie said her husband became upset and she last saw him alive as he went downstairs and her son Jamie followed him. She said: "I assumed he was with his dad."

Mrs Mackenzie said she went to get her phone to call the police but a bid was made to stop her. She said her son Jamie came in and said he and his father had been stabbed. She could see blood at her son's shoulder, hands and trousers,

She said Wheeler appeared in her garden. "I had just got 99 on the phone and he was there in front of me. He was holding the knife above his head."

She said Wheeler threatened to kill her and she dropped the phone. She said: "I had my hand on his shoulder. I said 'I don't think you are'. He was trying to barge past me with the knife. The knife was covered in blood then the police arrived."

Advocate depute Sheena Fraser asked her what sort of mood Wheeler was in when he arrived in her garden. She replied: "He was angry, furious."

She said she heard officers shouting at him to drop the weapon but he would not do it. She said: "I kept looking to my right, thinking 'Where are you Scott, why are you not helping'. I kept expecting Scott to run up."

She said officers used a pepper spray on Wheeler and added: "He fell to his knees, but he still did not let go the knife."

Mrs Mackenzie said she went looking for her husband and went to Wheeler's home. "I went in the living room and I was thinking where is he. Then I looked into the kitchen and there is blood everywhere." She said the father-of-three was slumped on the floor saturated in blood with a wound on his neck.

Her son Jamie said that he and his father had gone to Wheeler's address to confront him about the allegation that had been made, but did not take weapons.

He said Wheeler was at the back door and he and his father were arguing and shouting with each other.

He said he grabbed Wheeler by the T-shirt after he threw a punch at his father which failed to connect. He said his father was "laying into" Wheeler punching him on the back of the head.

His father had stopped hitting him but he then saw Wheeler going into a drawer and getting a knife. He said: "My dad was about to walk out the house."

He said Wheeler came at his father with the knife, adding: "He was trying to stab him. He was aiming for the top of the body. He stabbed my dad in the neck with the knife."

"I seen the blood coming out my dad's neck and my dad stumbling back," he said.

Wheeler had denied raping the 14-year-old girl at his home in Inverkip Drive, Shotts, in Lanarkshire, on June 5 after supplying her with alcoholic drinks.

He had also denied murdering Mr Mackenzie and attempting to murder his son Jamie (20) at his home on the same date and claimed he acted in self defence. He was found guilty of all three charges.

The teenager in the sex attack had told the court that she was not drunk but was "well on".

She said: "I tried to push him off but he is stronger than me. I didn't really know what was going on because I had not done anything like that before."

She said: "I didn't know what to do. I was just shocked."

The judge, Lady Carmichael, told Wheeler that there was only one sentence she could impose for the crime of murder, but she would also have to fix a minimum term he must serve before becoming eligible to apply for parole under a life sentence.

She told jurors that they had heard evidence of "a distressing nature about serious matters". The judge deferred sentence on Wheeler until February 1 at the High Court in Glasgow for the preparation of a background report.

Mrs Fraser told the court that unemployed Fraser stayed with his wife and young son at the time of the murder.

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