27 years’ jail for ex-soldier who stabbed lover to death
‘I could see blood running down’
A FORMER soldier was jailed for at least 27 years yesterday after murdering his ex-partner in a frenzied knife attack.
Gary Brown will not be released until he serves the lengthy minimum term after stabbing Alyson Watt 42 times in the fatal attack at her home.
The dying victim managed to tell a neighbour who went to her aid that Brown was responsible for the merciless assault on her.
Brown, 55, also carried out a vicious hammer attack on a 16year-old boy at Miss Watt’s home in Paisley, Renfrewshire, leaving him with serious head injuries and in need of long-term care.
At the High Court in Edinburgh a judge told Brown, formerly of Uddingston, Lanarkshire: ‘Your behaviour was murderous.’
Miss Watt’s former partner, Graeme Scott, was present to see Brown being sentenced and said she had saved the teenager from being killed. He added: ‘Justice has been served. It has been a massive impact on a lot of people, Alyson’s friends, Alyson’s family.’
Lord Summers said Miss Watt had died at the scene and Brown had sentenced the boy, who was left profoundly disabled and barely able to communicate, ‘to a living death’.
The judge said victim impact statements produced by relatives of Miss Watt made ‘harrowing reading’.
The court earlier heard the Falklands War veteran claimed he immediately ‘fell in love’ with 52-year-old Miss Watt after they met up through a dating website.
He thought the Barnardo’s worker was ‘interesting and attractive’ but months before the murder found a text on her phone which implied she might have kissed another man, which became an obsession.
The ScottishPower engineer turned up at Miss Watt’s home on June 2 last year and knifed her.
Two of the wounds damaged jugular veins, resulting in rapid and profuse blood loss and death.
Neighbour Peter Harris, 71, went to Miss Watt’s aid. He said: ‘Her hand was dragging down the window. I could see the blood running down. I ran straight to Alyson – into the kitchen at the back door.
‘She was lying on the floor. There were wounds to her face and neck, blood was pulsing out.
‘I asked was it Gary that did it. She whispered, “Yeah”. She tried to nod but could not move her head properly.’
After the attacks Brown drove to South-west Scotland and claimed he intended to take his own life, but was arrested by police.
The former Scots Guardsman earlier stood trial after denying the murder, claiming he was suffering from an abnormality of mind at the time of the offence.
But a jury rejected a plea to convict him of the lesser offence of culpable homicide. He admitted attempting to murder the 16-year-old.
Defence counsel Brian McConnachie, QC, said Brown had a borderline personality disorder.
He added that Brown’s service in the Falklands was a period when he effectively thought his life would end.