Man got teenage girl drunk and left her to die on freezing hill
A man who killed an underage schoolgirl after buying her drink and abandoning her at an Edinburgh beauty spot on a winter's night has been jailed.
Ewan Fulton engaged in sexual activity with Mhari O'neill before leaving her in an intoxicated state on Edinburgh's Calton Hill where her body was found by a dog walker.
Fulton, then aged 18, had met the 15-year-old through social media site Yubo – which he later described as being like "Tinder for teenagers".
Thehighcourtinedinburgh heard that even before he met Mhari on the fateful day, he sentheramessagewhichread: "It is freezing today should've worn my pimp coat". In a later message he wrote: "Ur gonna freeze to death OMG."
After she was found dead he told police that he had met Mhari online and was aware that she was 15-years-old.
He said he had bought a large bottle of vodka for them to share after he travelled to Edinburgh from Livingston to meet up with the Portobello High School pupil.
Fulton said after some heavy petting and consuming the drink about 50/50 between them Mhari was "obviously drunk".
He told police: "It was like she had lost all motor skills, she was too drunk to do anything." He said she was so intoxicated she kept falling off a bench and could not walk.
He claimed he was starting to panic and knew he needed to get the last train home. He maintained that he told her several times he was leaving but did not get a response as she was "unable to speak".
The following day the shop worker sent her a text stating: "Are you alive?" He said he was "freaking out" because he had not heard from her and meant 'talk to me when you are alive'.
Advocate depute Alex Prentice QC told the court that after his meeting with Mhari, Fulton had been in contact with a friend the following day.
He sent her a message claiming he he was "going to end it soon". In other messages he wrote: "I had no choice but to leave what was I supposed to do" and "ig other drunk she' s 15".
He told another friend: "That girl has a family and if I had stayed she would be alive."
Mr Prentice said that pathologists had decided that on balance they considered that hypothermia, with intoxication, was the most probable mechanism of her death.
Fulton, now aged 20, admitted killing Mhari, who died on December 7 or 8 in 2018, when he appeared at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday.
He took part in sexual activity with the schoolgirl and bit her breasts and compressed her neck and culpably and recklessly endangered her health and life and exposed her to risk of injury and death.
He provided her with alcohol which resulted in her becoming intoxicated and incapable of looking after herself. Fulton, of Eagle Brae, Livingston, in West Lothian, behaved with "utter disregard" and abandoned the girl "in a remote and exposed location" in a state of partial undress without means to contact anyone and failed to seek help for her.
The culpable homicide charge stated that he behaved with "utter disregard" for the consequences of his actions.