Father-of-three stabbed through the heart on Paisley street, court hears

A father-of-three bled to death on a Paisley street after being stabbed through the heart, a pathologist has told a murder trial.

Gemma Kemp told the High Court in Glasgow that Craig McClelland was stabbed twice – once through the heart and once in the abdomen.

She was giving evidence at the trial of James Wright and Stuart McLellan who deny murdering 31-year-old Mr McClelland in the town's Tweed Avenue on July 23 last year.

Dr Kemp told prosecutor Paul Brown that the fatal wound was the blow to the heart which cut through the edge of the breastbone and a rib.

The pathologist added: “Mr McClelland may have been capable of momentum shortly after the blow was delivered, but collapse would have occurred shortly afterwards due to blood loss.

"The force used would be moderate to severe. To penetrate bone, which is the hardest thing in the body, would need a lot of force to push through the sternum which is quite a thick bone. I would say the force needed was at the severe end.”

Mr Brown asked if the wound to the heart was survivable and the pathologist replied: “I think it is highly unlikely it would be survivable even if it happened in a hospital with an operating theatre on standby.”

Dr Kemp told the jury that most of the massive blood loss was internal and that whoever carried out the stabbing may not have got any blood on them.

The court has heard that Mr McClelland was stabbed twice in the chest as he walked from his Foxbar home to his brother's home to play X-Box games.

He left the house at 11.15pm and five minutes later made a 999 call saying he had been stabbed.

As he lay dying he told paramedics the names of his partner and their three young sons and pleaded: “Please, don't let me die.”

The trial before Lord Matthews continues.