Man gets 23 years’ jail for killing pair at teen’s vigil
A MAN has been jailed for life for murdering a woman and killing a man at a vigil for a missing teenager.
Robert Stratton stabbed Julie McCash and David Sorrie after the get-together for friends and family of Ralph Smith.
They gathered after the 18-yearold fell from cliffs in Arbroath, Angus, hoping he was still alive, but his body was found on a nearby beach weeks later.
A court was told that people at the vigil drank and took illegal drugs before Stratton’s partner Lee Kinney got into an argument with other party-goers.
A jury heard that Miss Kinney was beaten up in the street and she told the court she was in fear of her life and had to run home. She said she was scared those who had beaten her up would break into her house.
But rather than wait for police, Stratton, 43, left the house armed with two kitchen knives. He stabbed Miss McCash, 43, before plunging a blade into Mr Sorrie, 32. Both died from their injuries.
At the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday, Stratton was convicted of the murder of Miss McCash and the culpable homicide under provocation of Mr Sorrie.
Friends and family of the victims screamed as the verdicts were given. Several people were removed from court and as he was led away, Stratton turned to friends and family and said: ‘Are you happy now?’
After the verdicts, on the fifth day of the trial, prosecutor Alex Prentice, QC, revealed that Stratton had previously been given seven years for attempted murder.
Judge Lord Beckett told Stratton he must serve 23-and-a-half years before being eligible for parole.
He said: ‘The taking of two knives transformed a minor incident into two killings. For someone like you, with a previous conviction for attempted murder, who killed two people and in one case committed murder, severe punishment is necessary.’
Stratton, of Dundee, had admitted killing the pair in the city’s Drumlanrig Drive. He said he had acted in self-defence because he was afraid the people who had beaten up Miss Kinney were going to break into his house.
Stratton said Miss McCash had run into a knife he was holding and he was not ‘too sure’ how Mr Sorrie had come into contact with his blade.