Fifteen years for man who killed his cousin

COURT: Accused confessed to police right after ‘vicious’ stabbing

Three of the wounds to the chest caused damage to the pulmonary artery and the heart. DEPUTE ADVOCATE ALISON DI ROLLO

A killer who murdered his cousin by stabbing him 23 times was jailed for 15 years yesterday.

Daniel Ross attacked Gavin Ross, 28, at a flat in Dunfermline, despite the pair having been described as “the best of pals”.

The men had a row in April this year before Ross grabbed a knife and lashed out at his relative.

The 26 year-old later confessed to police: “I’ve really done it this time. I’m going away for a long time.”

Ross was jailed for life at the High Court in Glasgow after he pled guilty to murder.

The attack happened at the home of Gavin Ross in the Abbeyview estate between April 28 and 30.

The court heard that Mr Ross was recuperating at home after being treated for a blood clot in hospital.

The accused then moved in with his cousin to help care for him.

Depute advocate Alison Di Rollo told the court that Gavin Ross suffered 23 stab wounds, 11 of them to the chest.

“Three of the wounds to the chest caused damage to the pulmonary artery and the heart,” the prosecutor added.

This led to bleeding in the heart and chest, which caused Mr Ross’s death.

Defensive wounds on his right hand showed he had fought for his life as he was assaulted.

After the fatal attack Daniel Ross sat by his cousin’s body for six hours. He said he did not call for help because he knew he was dead.

The accused then had a bath and put on new clothes.

He next covered his cousin’s body with a duvet, his dressing-gown and the blood-stained clothes he had taken off, along with the murder weapon.

When Daniel Ross’s father arrived he told him: “It was him or me.”

At 8.25pm Ross’s father called the police and put his son on the phone. Daniel Ross confessed to officers he had killed his cousin.

Brian McConnachie QC, defending, said Ross and his cousin were described as “the best of the pals” and were “never seen without each other”.

But Mr McConnachie told how the pair had been arguing on the night of the killing, initially about a “family matter”.

Describing the aftermath of the stabbing, the lawyer went on: “He then sat literally beside his cousin incapable of processing what he had just done.”

The court heard it had always been Daniel Ross’s intention to then confess to what had happened.

Mr McConnachie said: “Police could not stop him telling them what he had been responsible for.”

Judge Lord Turnbull said the jail term would have been 18 years but for Ross’s guilty plea.

He described the killing as a “vicious and prolonged attack”.

Picture: David Wardle. Gavin Ross, from Dunfermline, was stabbed 23 times by his cousin Daniel after a row about a “family matter”. Below: scenes of crime officers at the victim’s Abbeyview flat.