Former soldier who stabbed his friend with screwdriver jailed for life

A former soldier who stabbed his friend to death in a brutal attack has been jailed for life for his murder.

Stephen McGhee was told he’ll be locked up for at least 21 years before he is eligible for parole for killing Kevan Doyle in Wishaw, North Lanarkshire.

A judge told the 48-year-old at the High Court in Edinburgh: ‘The speed and ferocity of the attack was plain to see on CCTV footage.’

Lord Young said McGhee was ‘a man quick to violence’ who had 10 convictions for assault with several of them aggravated by the injuries inflicted or the use of a weapon.

The judge said that Mr Doyle, 43, had experienced many difficulties in his life bit ‘was part of a close and loving family and they miss him very deeply’.

McGhee had earlier denied murdering Mr Doyle in the attack with a screwdriver or a knife or similar implement by repeatedly striking him on the head and body on October 28, 2022 but was convicted of the crime.

The court heard that it appeared the lethal weapon used in the attack was a screwdriver.

McGhee claimed he was effectively ambushed by Mr Doyle and others when he went over to deliver a spare phone for him in a bid to help him.

But the fatal assault was caught on CCTV with prosecutor William Frain-Bell KC describing three blows to the head and chest of the victim as ‘forceful, violent and immediate’.

McGhee fled the scene and said he only realised that something serious had occurred when he later saw police tape at the house.

He told jurors at his earlier trial: ‘I could not believe what had happened had resulted in his death.’

Defence counsel Tony Graham KC said it as ‘a needless death’ and added: ‘He stands to spend a considerable time in custody for ending a human life.’

He said ‘a considerable amount of alcohol’ had been consumed on the day of the attack and told the court: ‘It goes without saying that if Mr McGhee could relive that day he would never have returned to that house.’