A man was given a life sentence yesterday for viciously murdering a pensioner – after previously being jailed for trying to kill his victim in the same assault.
Garry Munro launched “a brutal and unprovoked” attack on James Robson at his home in the fishing port of Buckie.
His victim was 66 when he was attacked – but was 67 by the time he died in hospital nearly a year later.
A judge ruled yesterday that Munro, 32, should serve at least 16 years for the offence and warned him not to assume he would be released at the end of the period.
The sentence will run concurrently with the nine-year term he was given in 2013 after he was convicted of attempting to murder Mr Robson.
The senior citizen was assaulted at his home in Buckie’s Blantyre Terrace on July 10, 2012. He died in the town’s Seafield Hospital on June 15, 2013.
After the jurors at the High Court in Edinburgh returned their verdict yesterday, judge Lord Glennie told them they would be “slightly surprised” to hear the background to the case and that there had already been a trial before Mr Robson’s death.
The killer’s stepson Reece Munro, also known as Kray, also stood trial for the murder of Mr Robson, but the jury found him guilty of the lesser charge of culpable homicide.
The 19-year-old was jailed for four years after he was found guilty of attempting to murder Mr Robson in 2013.
The teenager was convicted of killing Mr Robson by kicking and punching him on the body and will be sentenced at a later date.
Munro senior was found guilty of murdering Mr Robson by repeatedly kicking and stamping on his head and body and repeatedly punching him on the head and body.
At the time of the murder, he had been freed under three bail orders.
The victim suffered a serious brain injury in the beating. He later contracted pneumonia.
The judge who previously sentenced the pair for attempted murder, Lady Scott, told them: “The attack on Mr Robson took place by both of you entering his house and assaulting him when he was utterly defenceless.”
She told Munro senior it was clear he was the instigator and the main assailant. As well as jailing him for nine years she ordered that he should be kept under supervision for a further five years for the protection of the public.
Advocate depute Steven Borthwick, prosecuting, said that following the earlier conviction, matters had moved on with the death of Mr Robson and the Crown had brought the new prosecution against them.
Both had denied the charge of murder.
Georgina Kray, 44, had earlier told the trial that before the fatal attack Mr Robson had sat close to her and Munro on a bus and “looked down” her top.
She claimed the murder victim made her feel uncomfortable and was “creepy”.
She said she lived beside Mr Robson and Munro, her former partner, had left her home to go to the older man’s home.
Her son, Reece, had also left their home to see what was happening, before “a lot of thumps” were heard coming from Mr Robson’s property.
She told the court that Munro came back to her property and washed blood off a pair of training shoes while she went to Mr Robson’s home and found him injured.
“It was not good at all,” she said.
“His head looked like it had been a watermelon that had been stamped on.”