Teen who stabbed stranger to death in Glasgow to be sentenced
A teenage boy who killed a stranger in Glasgow by stabbing him eight times will be sentenced later.
A teenage boy who killed a stranger in Glasgow by stabbing him eight times will be sentenced later.
Eighteen-year-old Graeme Bell was handed over to the police by his mother after he came home covered in blood and with a kitchen knife hanging out his trouser pocket.
Bell is facing a lengthy sentence after being found guilty at the High Court in Glasgow of the culpable homicide 48-year-old dad-of-one Patrick Ferguson in Midcroft Avenue, Glasgow, on February 19, last year.
He was originally charged with murder, but convicted of the lesser charge after trial.
At the High Court in Glasgow Bell, who comes from a respectable hard-working family, was also convicted of carrying a knife.
Prosecutor David Taylor said that Bell has four previous convictions including one for assault to injury for which he received a 12-month sentence.
In evidence, his mother Pauline Bell, 58, told of how her son came home in the early hours of the morning covered in blood.
She said: “I opened the door to him and walked up the stairs behind him. His clothes were heavily stained. I noticed there was a knife hanging out of Graeme's trouser pocket. There was blood on the knife.
"I took it from his pocked and said 'I'm going to call the police'. I didn't want him to go anywhere. I wanted him to stay until the police arrived.”
Bell did not give evidence in court, but claimed through his legal team that he was acting in self-defence. It was claimed Bell had gone to see Mr Ferguson after he was had texted by the older man and offered cannabis in return for sexual favours.
The court heard that Bell had recently changed his mobile phone and did not know Mr Ferguson or how he managed to get his phone number.
Bell said he took a knife with him because he was fearful of meeting with Mr Ferguson in the early hours.
Bell claimed that Mr Ferguson who was 5ft 11in and weighed 17 and a half stones had jumped on top of him.
His defence QC Donald Findlay claimed that Bell had lashed out with knife he had taken from his mother's kitchen earlier in the evening.
But the jury did not believe he was acting in self defence.
The jury heard that Bell stole a quantity of cannabis resin from Mr Ferguson that night.
Electrician Gareth Thomas, 41, told the jury he was wakened around 2.30am and heard a man's voice shouting: “Phone the police. I need help. He's got a knife.”
He ran out into the street and found Mr Ferguson fatally wounded in the street.
Pathologist Dr Gemma Kemp told the court that the wound that killed Mr Ferguson went through the sac round his heart, damaged a major artery and went through the lobe of his lung and into the top of his liver.
Mr Ferguson's DNA was found on the knife and on Bell's blood soaked clothes.
Mr Ferguson's mother 77-year-old Elizabeth Ferguson said that when she woke up on February 19, 2016, her son was missing.
She said when she walked down the street to get messages she was told someone had been killed.
However, it was not until Saturday, February 21, last year, that she was told her son had been stabbed to death.
Mrs Ferguson was asked by prosecutor David Taylor: “Did the police tell you Patrick was the person who was dead,” and she replied: “I didn't find out until Saturday when they had fingerprints and they took me to the mortuary and it was him.”
Mr Taylor told the court that Mr Ferguson was his mother's carer and she has now moved to sheltered accommodation.
Judge Lady Stacey deferred sentence on Bell until February 24 at the High Court in Edinburgh for background reports.
Bell waved to his family and friends as he was led away to begin his sentence.