Life for 'brutal' teenage killer

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A teenager found guilty of murder after a brutal attack on a man in North Lanarkshire has been jailed for life.

Steven Brownlie, 18, and two teenage friends attacked 63-year-old Alex Pullar in a pub car park in Cumbernauld in March 2005.

The retired college lecturer died in hospital the following day.

At the High Court in Edinburgh Lord Kinclaven ordered that Brownlie should serve at least 12 years before being considered for parole.

Brownlie had denied murder and claimed his friends Stefan Campbell and Christopher Slonaker were responsible.

Following a trial in December 2005, Campbell and Slonaker were cleared of murder but admitted assault and robbery. We would have been worried if it had been anything less but the judge did the right thing Alex PullarVictim's son Campbell, who was 15 at the time, was sentenced to three years detention.

Slonaker, then 16, was sentenced to three years and four months detention.

Brownlie's trial was aborted when psychiatrists said he was unable to continue and he was sent to a secure hospital.

But when his condition improved, preparations were made for a new trial.

A jury at the High Court in Glasgow eventually found Brownlie guilty of murder in June.

The court had heard how Brownlie had boasted about the attack, telling how he had swung from a tree branch to kick Mr Pullar and how he heard his skull crack.

Alcohol abuse

It also heard how he had been drinking every day since he was 11 and had dabbled in drugs.

Sentencing him, Lord Kinclaven said although the abuse of alcohol might go some way to explaining what happened it was no excuse.

But the judge did take into account his young age, lack of record and the remorse he had expressed.

Following the sentence, Mr Pullar's son, also Alex, said: "It is quite a fair result, we think, because of his age.

"We would have been worried if it had been anything less but the judge did the right thing."

The murder was the second tragedy to strike the family in 14 months.

In January 2004 Mr Pullar's diabetic wife, Moira, 62, died after an accidental massive overdose of insulin in hospital.