Appearance

A knife thug from Croftfoot murdered a dad who remarked on the killer’s“pretty boy” appearance.

Ryan Currie brutally stabbed“gentle giant”Kirk Cole a total of seven times last June.

Kirk, 33, had been at the home of neighbour Maria Drummond in Glasgow’s Crookston, but was apparently“unhappy” when Currie turned up.

Kirk was said to have made a jibe about the 27 year old’s looks before the thug launched a vicious knife attack.

Callous Currie then placed another blade in the dead man’s hand to make it look like he had been armed.

Jurors also heard Maria, 32, bizarrely took a photo of Kirk’s body and sent it to friends as she could not believe the death was “really happening”.

Currie has now been jailed for a minimum 16 years after he was convicted of murder at the High Court in Glasgow.

It emerged after the verdict Currie already had a violent record – including an assault on a man that was filmed and stuck on YouTube.

Kirk had been at Maria’s flat last June 22. They had only previously chatted to each other a couple of times.

Kirk later said he was going to leave then he learned Currie had been invited.

Currie and Maria had only known each other through Facebook. It is not thought the killer and Kirk had ever met.

Currie’s QC Brian McConnachie asked Maria during the trial:“From the very beginning of Ryan being in your house, Kirk is unhappy about the situation?”

She replied:“Just wee digs and stuff. He said“pretty boy’to him.”

There were further claims Kirk“made jokes which could go wrong and did go wrong”.

It eventually ended up with Currie stabbing Kirk – five times on the front, twice on the back.

As the stricken 17-stone victim lay on the floor, Currie grabbed another knife and placed it in the dead dad’s hand.

Currie fled the scene, but first told Maria: “I’m off...I was not here.”

The court heard that Maria meantime took a snap of a dead Kirk as he lay in her flat.

Quizzed about this, she said:“I took a picture to say:‘this is what is happening. I don’t know how to deal with it. Please tell me this is not happening’.”

Currie, of the city’s Croftfoot, handed himself into police a week after the killing.

He claimed it was Kirk who attacked him with a knife.

He told jurors the blade eventually fell to the ground, Currie then grabbed it and struck Kirk.

Asked about then putting a knife in Kirk’s hand, Mr McConnachie put to him:“What do you think of that now?” Currie:“A horrible thing to do.” After the verdict, Mr Meehan said Kirk’s sister had provided an emotional victim impact statement.

The prosecutor said:“She described him as a gentle giant. He had lost weight, was getting healthy and had been going out cycling.

“He was said to be funny and not someone who became involved in conflict.”

As well as murder, Currie was also convicted of attempting to defeat the ends of justice.

Currie already had a criminal record dating back to his teenage years including possession of offensive weapons.

Lord Beckett said:“A family has been deprived of a much loved brother, uncle and son.

“His daughter will have no chance now of forming a relationship with her father.”