EXCESSIVE
This is Scottish justice, where a 14-year sentence for killing a man with four deep knife wounds to the victim’s chest and abdomen is ruled to be.. Killer’s 2-year cut in jail term
A KILLER who brutally stabbed a bodybuilding champion to death has had his jail sentence cut.
Steven Kirkwood was originally sentenced to 14-and-a-half years for repeatedly knifing former Mr Scotland Michael O’Hanlon.
The victim suffered four deep wounds on his chest and abdomen.
But after claiming that the disposal by trial judge Lady Rae was “excessive”, thug Kirkwood, 44, had his original sentence quashed and replaced by a 12-year jail term at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh.
Lord Malcolm, who heard the appeal with Lady Paton, said: “While we can understand that for the deceased’s family, it is unlikely that any sentence can be described as excessive, we are persuaded that some weight should be attached to the jury’s view as to the appellant acting under provocation.”
Kirkwood had faced a murder charge after stabbing Michael, 45, from Irvine, at a garage in Stevenston, Ayrshire, last July. The confrontation was sparked by abusive emails sent by Kirkwood to his former partner Eileen O’Hanlon, who was due to marry Michael.
But after a trial at the High Court in Glasgow, jurors unanimously convicted Kirkwood of the lesser offence of culpable homicide under provocation.
He watched the appeal proceedings via a live video link to Shotts prison.
Lord Malcolm said: “The principal ground of appeal against sentence, and in our view the only one with any substance, is that the sentencing judge failed to give sufficient weight, or indeed any weight, to the provocation rider added to the jury’s verdict of culpable homicide.”
He said Lady Rae had stated in her report that she made no allowance for it as, in her view, it explained the decision to return a verdict of culpable homicide rather than murder.
He added that it seemed clear she considered that given the severity of the knife wounds to the victim then, but for the provocation, the offence would have been murder.
But Lord Malcolm said: “That may have been the jury’s view or it may not. They were quite properly directed they could return a verdict of culpable homicide with or without a rider of provocation. In the event, they chose the latter.”