How alcohol is fuelling a new wave of murder - Herald Scotland | News | Crime & Courts

08:24 How alcohol is fuelling a new wave of murder 0 Comments

How alcohol is fuelling a new wave of murder - Herald Scotland | News | Crime & Courts: "You won’t have heard of James Cullinane.
Or his victim, Stephen Williamson. Cullinane murdered Williamson. He stabbed him in the heart after stuffing rags in his mouth.
Nobody seemed to notice: the killing merited a total of six sentences in the national and regional press. Because this was what is now an ordinary Scottish murder, this was routine, this was two drunk friends fighting in a flat.
For the record, Cullinane, 45, whose only “previous” was a breach of the peace, got the jail; for at least 14 years. He had knifed Williamson in the head and body at the flat they shared in Irvine, Ayrshire.
Williamson was found in his home early on the evening of Wednesday, April 15, 2009. He died soon after in hospital.
Murders are happening in the very place that is next to impossible to police. Murders are happening in our homes. Strathclyde ACC George Hamilton
He was one of the first of 42 homicides recorded by Strathclyde Police in their official recording year, which runs, like the financial one, from April to March. But the Williamson killing, ignored by almost everyone except his friends and family and the detectives who quickly solved it, was part of an increasingly worrying trend: the indoor murder."