Man jailed for Greenock murder after he accused victim of smashing window

An armed killer who stabbed a man to death following an allegation that the victim had broken a car window was jailed for life today.

Stephen Kane was ordered to serve at least 16 years in prison following the murder of 23-year old Lee Monaghan.

A judge told 21 year old Kane: 'On the night in question your brother told you the window of his car had been smashed by Lee Monaghan.'

Lord Clark said at the High Court in Edinburgh that in fact it was not known who had damaged the vehicle.

He said Kane had then armed himself with knives and gone looking for Mr Monaghan in his home town of Greenock.

The judge said: 'You stabbed him three times in the legs. One of the knife blows you struck proved to be fatal.'

The fatal wound severed a major artery resulting in the victim bleeding to death following the attack on August 24 last year.

Lord Clark said:'His mother was at the scene trying to phone an ambulance. He died in front of her.'

The judge said that information before him confirmed how profound the effect of her son's loss had been to her.

He said the mother, family and friends have been left to deal with the loss of a much-loved young man.

Lord Clark told Kane: 'It is clear you have expressed remorse for your actions'

He said he took into account Kane's relatively young age and lack of a criminal record, but also had regard to the seriousness of the crime of murder and that the killer's crime was planned and premeditated.

Kane had offered to plead guilty to the lesser offence of culpable homicide but was convicted of murdering Mr Monaghan at an earlier trial.

He went looking for his target after he was told about the incident with his older brother Christopher's Skoda car.

Kane armed himself with two knives and got a taxi across town from his home in Tasker Street to the block of flats in Belville Street where his victim lived with his mother Sandra.

He confronted Mrs Monaghan and showed her the weapons. She said: 'He said he was getting Lee. He said he was looking for him. He said he was going to stab him. He said: 'He's not going to damage my brother's car'.'

Moments later she saw Kane pursuing and attacking her son in the street and rushed outside with Christopher Kane, a neighbour.

He said his brother told him 'He's not going to be messing with us again' before he left the crime scene.

Mrs Monaghan put her son's head in her arms and spoke to him. She said: 'But I knew he was dead. I could just see it in his eyes. My whole world just shattered, I just knew.'

Kane's brother went to the aid of the victim as other neighbours applied pressure to his wound. Kane was later detained by police at Greenock cemetery.

Defence counsel Donald Findlay QC said to Lord Clark that as the trial judge he had heard all the evidence. He added: 'On that evidence the jury was entitled to bring the verdict it did.'

He said of Kane: 'This is a young man who has not had much of a life so far and now has no future to speak of. He has, of course, to accept responsibility for his actions.'

Lord Clark told Kane that after he had served the minimum period of 16 years it would be up to the parole authorities to determine any future release.