Justice ... from beyond the grave
Teens given 6 years for attacking a father jailed for life after his death
TWO teenagers have been handed life sentences for the murder of an innocent stranger who was making his way home from church.
It is the second time Daniel Kinlan, 18, and Darren Boland, 19, have been convicted over the ‘extreme’ attack on Ajani Tella, 60.
The family man was left ‘severely disabled’ with head injuries and later died.
Kinlan and Boland initially admitted attempted murder and were each jailed – but both were hauled back before the courts to face a murder charge after Mr Tella’s death. At the High Court in Livingston yesterday, judge Lady Stacey told Kinlan – who stamped on his victim’s head 20 times – that he would have to serve at least ten years and nine months. Boland was jailed for a minimum of nine years and 11 months.
Lady Stacey told the pair their new sentences would not be discounted or backdated and would start afresh. She said: ‘You inflicted pain and suffering on an innocent man who was doing no harm to anyone.
‘What you did that night was brutal and stupid. One of the social workers describes it as “extreme” in terms of the sustained level of violence.’
Kinlan and Boland assaulted Mr Tella, a father, in the street in Springburn, north Glasgow, in August 2015. They were each jailed for six years in November 2015 for attempted murder.
Mr Tella then died in a nursing home in December 2016 after developing pneumonia.
Kinlan and Boland – who were 15 and 16 at the time of the attack – were put on trial again and found guilty of murder in September this year. Yesterday, Lady Stacey told them: ‘You had already pled guilty to attempted murder. In doing so, you accepted that your attack on him was a murderous attack which could have caused his death there and then.
‘In the second case the jury decided that Mr Tella’s death was caused by your actions.’
She added: ‘You deprived a family of a partner and a father. Nothing you can do or say can take away the grief that family has suffered.’
Kinlan and Boland attacked Mr Tella as he was returning
‘What you did was brutal and stupid’ ‘Grief that family has suffered’
home from a night-time prayer vigil at his church.
Kinlan had taken drugs and drunk cider, while Boland had consumed a lot of vodka.
CCTV footage showed them beating him senseless while he lay helpless on the ground.
Allan MacLeod, defending Kinlan, said his client had very little recollection of the attack.
He added: ‘Drugs and alcohol were an issue for him from a very young age indeed.’
Victoria Young, defending Boland, said: ‘He recognises he ruined the victim’s life – that’s perhaps an understatement.’