Killer who sliced off ear jailed

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A killer who sliced off his victim's ear and kept it as a memento after slashing, beating and setting him on fire has been jailed for life.

Stuart McKelvie, 27, admitted murdering James Taylor, 29, in woods in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, in October last year.

Judge Lord Kinclaven said he should serve at least 14 years before being considered for parole.

McKelvie's girlfriend, Fiona McKay, was also jailed for her part in the attack.

Stolen purse

She was also originally charged with the murder but the Crown accepted her guilty plea to a reduced charge of assaulting the victim to his injury.

She was ordered to serve 18 months in prison.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard that the victim had been released from Saughton prison the day before he was murdered.

After the sentencing his mother, Maureen Taylor, 53, handed a photo of her son to McKelvie's family.

She said: "That's how I remember Jimmy. I just wanted to let them see."

The court heard that McKelvie told a witness he had stripped James Taylor and poured petrol over him in a bid to get him to admit stealing his girlfriend's purse and some valium.

Face wounds

McKelvie admitted punching and kicking his victim, hitting him with a stick and repeatedly stabbing him and cutting off his ear.

When the killer was later questioned by a witness about the ear he produced a glass jar with an ear-shaped object floating in liquid.

The court was told he also waved a piece of the ear about, stating: "He'll no hear again."

James Taylor's body was discovered in the woodland in Motherwell by two teenage boys.

Pathologists who carried out a post-mortem examination found a total of 57 injuries, including 14 wounds to the face.

Burns covered 30% of the body and an examination showed features that were consistent with him being alive at the time they were sustained.