A martial arts thug helped brutally murder his father, then used the victim's bank card to buy scratch cards.
Stewart Muircroft, 43, conspired with Mark Connor, 51, to attack 67-year-old Alan West at his flat in Grangemouth, Stirlingshire.
Prosecutors said Allan was punched, kicked and hit with a stick, a mug, a washing machine door, a television and a vacuum cleaner on August 21 and 22, 2022.
The victim suffered at least 70 injuries, including brain damage and multiple fractures.
Muircroft, a second-degree black belt in taekwondo, denied any involvement in the incident and claimed he was not a “violent man.” Muircroft and Connor effectively accused each other of the murder.
The jury heard how Muircroft used the deceased man's bank card to buy a scratch card, a packet of beer and cigarettes at the local Asda – he claimed he did not know it was Alan's card and that Connor had given it to him in the shop.
“I have always thought of others before myself,” Muircroft told the jury.
The two men were convicted of murder after a trial at the High Court in Glasgow and each received a minimum 20-year prison sentence.
Lord Arthurson today told the pair: “The scale and seriousness of this planned and extremely brutal attack can only be properly appreciated in light of the injuries you inflicted.”
Muircroft had been dating Connor prior to the murders. Muircroft lived in a friend's apartment right next door to the apartment where Alan lived.
He claimed to have known his eventual victim “in passing”. In his evidence, Muircroft said Connor had left him that night but returned to “attack” Alan.
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Mr Muircroft: “His adrenaline was pumping. He was excited.”
After Connor went outside again, he heard “screaming and yelling” coming from Alan's apartment and “the sounds of the room being destroyed”.
Muircroft claimed he went to the scene, “restrained” Connor and “removed him”, and told the jury it was “complete darkness” so he did not see the victim after the attack.
Mr Muircroft added that if there was blood on Conor it was from when they were holding him. The killers then went to the Asda store in Grangemouth with others.
Mr Muircroft claimed Connor gave him his bank card – later identified as Alan's – and asked him to buy a beer with it whilst he went to the toilet.
His KC, Ian Duguid, asked him: “Did you also buy scratch cards?” Muircroft agreed that he had used Alan's card to make the purchase.
When asked if he knew at this point whether Alan was “alive or dead”, Muircroft said: “I knew he had been assaulted but it never occurred to me that he might be dead.”
“I knew he had been assaulted because Mr Connor told me so.”
Mr Muircroft denied ever telling the woman that he and Mr Connor had “hurt” Mr Allan and also denied claims that Mr Allan had made any statements about why he was assaulted.
“I never said a word. I'm not by nature a violent person,” Muircroft told the trial.
The jury heard Mr Connor state in police interview that “the responsibility lies with Mr Muircroft”. Mr Duguid: “Is he lying?” Mr Muircroft: “That's a blatant lie.”
Forensic evidence linked the two criminals to the crime, including Muircroft's DNA on the vacuum cleaner used to attack Alan's father in his apartment.
He tried to explain it away by claiming that a friend had asked Alan to borrow the vacuum cleaner because he needed to clean up his dog's hair.
Muircroft denied even being at the victim's apartment.
Connor did not give evidence but his KC, Thomas Ross, argued to Muircroft that if he was telling the truth it was unfortunate to be accused of murder.
At one point, Ross suggested: “With all the bad luck that's happened to you, what made you think buying a scratch card was going to make you lucky?”
Muircroft: “I often buy scratch cards.”
After the verdict, it emerged that the pair already had more than 60 criminal convictions between them.
Lord Arthurson also paid tribute to Allan's family, who have had to endure the trial and listen to “brutal and often deeply disturbing evidence”.
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