Man stabbed friend to death in Govan after row about lager

A knife thug murdered his friend after an apparently trivial row over cans of lager.

Reece Sweeney, 22, stabbed to death Jamie McGready at a flat in Glasgow's Govan on August 31 last year.

Friends and mercy crews tried to save Jamie - nicknamed Jaggy - but he later died in hospital.

Sweeney had denied killing the 33 year-old, whose partner was pregnant at the time.

Jurors today convicted Sweeney of murder following a six day trial at the High Court in Glasgow.

Sweeney - who had been on bail at the time - faces a life sentence when he returns to the dock next month.

The pair had been at the flat in the city's Summertown Path, where Michael O'Halloran lived with his 19 year-old son Sean-Paul.

Sean Paul O'Halloran recalled there being a "silly argument" between Jamie and Sweeney.

Asked by prosecutor Bill McVicar what it was about, the teenager replied: "I think it was about cans of beer or something."

The witness said he had been playing on a tablet device while this was going on before becoming aware of violence.

He said Sweeney "lunged" at Jamie and that was when he got "stabbed".

Jamie was said to have stated: "You have done me. You have killed me."

Sean's Paul's dad Michael - who had known Jamie since he was a child - recalled the victim had earlier been unhappy at Sweeney for not sticking up for him in an argument with three men.

The witness said: "He was like a dog with a bone. If he said it once, he said it 30 times."

Back at the flat, Michael said he was only aware something had happened when a woman also there shouted.

He found Jamie injured and said Sweeney had "gone".

Recalling trying to help stricken Jamie, Michael told Mr McVicar he carried out CPR for 12 minutes.

The dad went on: "I was shouting at Jamie: 'Stay with us, think of your daughter, think of your partner'.

"I was saying to Sean to breathe in his mouth while I kept pressure over the wounds.

"I was trying to get a pulse, but there was no pulse.

"I was just telling Jamie not to let go."

Jamie - who also lived in Govan - was rushed to the city's Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, but he never recovered.

He had suffered a number of wounds including one in the middle of the chest.

Sweeney was also today convicted of attempting to defeat the ends of justice.

After the verdict, prosecutor Mr McVicar told the court: "Mr McGready's parents have been in court for most of the trial and have obviously suffered a very significant loss."

Following the death, Jamie's heartbroken partner Natalie Graham posted an online tribute describing him as "my love - always and forever".

Sweeney will be sentenced on January 25 in Edinburgh after judge Lord Boyd adjourned the case for reports.

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