Published: Saturday, 19th May, 2007 11:09
GRAN KILLER'S VALIUM AND BOOZE RAGE
By COURT REPORTER
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THE murder trial of a schoolboy — who stabbed his gran 23 times — heard how the accused wrote five suicide notes before the brutal assault.
Thomas McAlpine, who was 15 at the time, attacked his gran Elizabeth after an alcohol and drug binge filled him `full of rage and anger`, the High Court in Glasgow heard.
McAlpine, now 16, does not dispute that he killed his gran, but he denies murdering her and his defence hinges on the effect the cocktail of drink and drugs may have had on him.
The court also heard that intoxicated McAlpine had thought about killing himself before attacking the 60-year-old woman.
McAlpine — who had downed vodka, Tia Maria and 60 of his grandmother's Valium tablets — later told police his nan had been like a mother to him and he `loved her to bits`.
The jury was told that McAlpine, who was brought up by his grandparents, was devastated by the death of his grandfather from cancer in November 2005, and had been in trouble at school.
The trial before Lord Clarke began last Tuesday with the accused's 17-year-old sister, also Elizabeth McAlpine, telling how she was woken on the night in question to find her dying gran crawling across the floor, covered in blood from fatal wounds.
A psychiatrist took the stand on Thursday to say a rare side effect of the drugs, called `paradoxical rage`, could have caused McAlpine’s violence.
Donald Findlay QC, defending, told one witness: `I accept on his behalf, I am not hiding the fact he killed his gran.`
McAlpine denies murdering his grandmother by stabbing her on the head, neck and body with a knife while she was asleep.
The offence is alleged to have taken place at the home they shared at 11 Waverley Terrace, Westcliff, on June 15, last year.
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