The mum of a Blantyre man who died following a violent attack has spoken of her relief after her son's assaulter was jailed for murder.
Raymond Bell repeatedly smacked David Black with a table leg and stamped on him before leaving the 35-year-old dad of one stricken in the killer's flat for days.
The brutal attack in 2014 followed a "trivial" row after Bell and another man appeared to like the same woman.
The victim suffered a traumatic brain injury requiring round-the-clock care, and tragically passed away in 2019.
Initially jailed for attempted murder, Bell was hauled back into the dock on a murder charge and sentenced more than seven years after the attack.
Now David's mum Kate Neil, who cared for him when he was left in a vegetative state, has told of her "utter relief," saying that justice had been served, reports the Daily Record.
She told Lanarkshire Live: "I received the letter to say Bell was being tried for murder and I was terrified.
"I didn't want to face him, but so many people told me I had to go and make sure he never walked the streets. So I was determined to go to court.
"During the trial, if there was any evidence that he had tried to turn his life around and rehabilitate himself over the last seven years, then I would have felt awful that her had been recalled to face a murder trial having served that long.
"But when we saw him, he showed no remorse at all. In fact, he was staring at my daughter trying to intimidate her throughout.
"He just looked smug.
"When the judge announced he had been convicted for 18 years it was just a sense of utter relief that he won't walk the streets for a long, long time."
READ MORE: Man convicted of murder years after his original sentence after Glasgow High Court trial
Detective Inspector Alan McAlpine welcomed the conviction.
He told Lanarkshire Live this week: "David Black endured a brutal and violent attack, which led to him requiring around the clock care, and in the end resulted in his death.
"We hope that this result will be of some comfort to David's family and friends who have also suffered at the hands of Bell's actions."
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here