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Perhaps an account of the actual crime might assist the debate along?
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The Herald (Glasgow)
March 16, 1993
HEADLINE: Man gets life for murder of night watchman
A DUMFRIES man was jailed for life yesterday for murdering a 54-year-old night watchman and robbing him of £85.
At Kilmarnock High Court yesterday William Currie, otherwise known as William Dodds, 29, originally faced an indictment listing a total of seven charges involving fraud, attempted fraud, conspiracy, attempted housebreaking and attempting to defeat the ends of justice.
But pleas of not guilty to six of the charges submitted by his defence counsel, Mr Donald Findlay, QC, were accepted by the Crown.
Advocate-depute Mrs Fiona Reith also accepted the deletion from the murder charge itself of allegations that Currie had cut Mr Robert McMurtie repeatedly on the face and neck with a knife or similar instrument, and had later mutilated his body by cutting off his genitals and placing them in the victim's mouth.
Mrs Reith told the court that Currie, of Mauchline Terrace, Dumfries, had formerly worked at Rogan's Market in the Whitesands, Dumfries, where his wife was also employed.
When his job ended he continued to visit the premises, getting to know both Mr McMurtrie and the guard dog which belonged to the market owner.
"He befriended the dog and took it for walks -- no doubt an advantage when he broke in," she said.
Mrs Reith explained that on October 4, last year, Currie used his knowledge of the building to get in through a hole in the roof which had been made during a previous break-in and which had been covered with a piece of asbestos sheet.
Currie, she said, accepted he was responsible for murdering Mr McMurtie, of Queen Street, Dumfries, in the manner set out in the charge, which detailed how he jumped on his victim, knocking him to the ground, and struck him repeatedly on the head, legs, and body with a hard object, or caused him to strike a hard object or surface, kicking him repeatedly on the head and body, and repeatedly stamping on his head.
The attack resulted in an extensive series of fractures to the victim's skull, face and lower jaw described as "massive" in a pathologist's report.
A post-mortem examination showed that the temporal lobes on the side of Mr McMurtie's skull were thinner than normal and thus more brittle.
But Mrs Reith said that did not detract from the pathologist's view that the force involved in the assault must have been severe.
As a result the victim suffered bleeding into the membrane of the brain and injuries to his face and jaw leading to bleeding into the mouth, with some of this blood being inhaled.
"Regrettably death was not instantaneous. He would have become progressively unconscious," Mrs Reith added.
She said Currie was arrested when he gave the cash he stole to his sister and she went to the police.
Mr Findlay told Lord MacLean that it was Currie's position that another individual had also been involved and that person's identity had been made known to police in January.
Jailing Currie for life, Lord MacLean told him the violence he had shown toward his victim was "quite exceptional".
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