TOTALLY SENSELESS

JUDGE SLAMS CULTURE OF GANGS WHICH LED TO BRUTAL DEATH

- SARAH VESTY AND DAVE FINLAY

Life for teen who stabbed 'defenceless' boy, 14, in heart with kitchen knife on train platform over gang rivalry

A TEENAGE killer was yesterday jailed for life over the stabbing of a 14-year-old at a railway station.

Chilling CCTV footage captured Daniel Haig, who was 16 at the time, clutching a kitchen knife just moments before plunging it in to the heart of 14-year-old Justin McLaughlin.

Justin later died in hospital - from a single stab wound - following the tragedy at High Street station in Glasgow on October 16, 2021.

At the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday, Haig, who is now 18, was ordered to serve a minimum of 16 years behind bars.

Lord Clark said the killing had "a devastating effect" on the McLaughlin family and told Haig: "They are left with dreadful loss you have caused for the rest of their lives."

He added: "You said in your evidence that you took the knife with you to protect yourself. That's not what happened. It is clear that you intended to have the knife available, to use it as a weapon to attack someone, because that's exactly what you did.

"In addition, Justin McLaughin was only 14, a child, and was just getting back on his feet when you stabbed him. He was in a defenceless position."

The judge said Justin and those with him were from a different area of Glasgow than Haig. He added: "It is deeply disturbing to see this gang activity still happening. It has been going on for many decades.

"A boy with a knife attacking and killing another boy because he is from a different local scheme and there is gang rivalry - is completely senseless."