PLASTERER,33 GETS LIFE FOR VAN MURDER
Steven mowed down over window fury
A PLASTERER was yesterday jailed for life for murdering a father of three by mowing him down with a white van after a row over broken windows.
Daniel McCafferty drove at 27-year-old Steven Campbell, knocking him over and dragging him under the van for almost half a mile.
He was ordered to serve at least 18 years behind bars.
The High Court in Glasgow heard that McCafferty, 33, was raging because his windows had been smashed on the night of the attack last June.
He suspected Steven and drove at him in his Transit van when he saw him and his friend Jason Buist as they walked on a street in Rutherglen, near Glasgow, at 2am.
Steven’s girlfriend Robyn McGill, 19, who was walking ahead of the two men, told the court she heard a “crunching” sound when a white van with lights on hit Steven.
She told jurors: “Steven got hit by the van and it kept speeding, didn’t stop. Steven’s hat was lying on the ground and I picked it up.”
McCafferty drove off leaving Steven’s body lying in the road.
He had suffered horrific injuries to his head and to his torso.
Later that morning McCafferty sent a social media message to a friend that said: “Wee p **** s smashed my windows again. Obs I won.”
Another said: “I’m going to jail for ages. Gonna waste a pure chunk of life for these wee p **** s.”
McCafferty sent another message saying: “Just annoyed I got forced into this. I won.”
McCafferty said Steven, who had been drinking, stumbled and fell and he did not see him.
Tony Graham QC, defending, said his client was remorseful and had offered to plead guilty to culpable homicide but he was convicted of murder.
Lord Clark told McCafferty: “Mr Campbell’s family has suffered a terrible loss, which you have caused, for the rest of their lives.”