TWO thugs who stamped a Co Donegal man to death outside his home were branded brutal and merciless by a judge who told them they must serve at least 16 years for the killing
Asif Rehman and Adel Ishaq, top left and Asif Rehman on the right killed Malin Head labourer William McKeeney, 57, near his Glasgow home.
Lord Uist told the killers: “It is a shocking indictment of the state of our society that an innocent man should be murdered in a public street, outside his own home, in this manner.
“Senseless violence of this kind must be suppressed.
“For no reason whatsoever, he was set upon in the street by you two when he had almost reached his home and subjected to a brutal and merciless attack which robbed him of his life.”
Rehman and Ishaq, both 20, have records of violence. They were hyped up on drink and drugs. They were out looking for trouble. A nine-day trial in Kilmarnock heard that Inishowen man William had been for a Saturday night out at the pub.
Just after midnight, he headed to his home in Pollokshields, Glasgow, carrying a fish supper. He was confronted by Rehman and Ishaq who called him “a white c**t” before launching a vicious attack.
William’s partner Annemarie Newlands, 48, said she was watching from her window for his return.
She looked out to see two Asian men stamping on something. She thought they were breaking up furniture.
But when she went into the street, she found her boyfriend. His head bore the marks left by his attackers’ shoes.
Ishaq and Rehman, both from Pollokshields, were found guilty of murder. An allegation that the attack on January 15 was racially motivated was deleted from the charge.
The trial heard that a plan by Rehman and Ishaq to flee the country was foiled by the local Asian community, who turned them in. The case prompted a protest outside the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday by a small group from the far-right Scottish Defence League, who hurled insults at friends of the two accused.
Extra police were on duty in and outside the building.
Gordon Jackson QC, for Rehman, told the court the assault had not been planned. “It was a spontaneous and very horrible act that happened for no good reason.” Derek Ogg QC, said Ishaq was remorseful and said no weapon had been involved. Lord Uist retorted: “A shod foot was the weapon.”
The court heard the kicks and stamps ruptured blood vessels in William’s abdomen and he died in hospital three hours later.
Sentencing the killers, Lord Uist said: “You walked away, leaving him lying in the roadway in a critical condition and callously did nothing to help him.” The judge also told Rehman that a background report made “grim reading” and noted that his convictions for violence began when he was just 15.
At the time of the attack, he was on bail – which added three months to his 16-year sentence.
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