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Daily Record
Daily Record
National
Dave Finlay

Scots killer who stabbed man 13 times in his Paisley flat jailed for life

A brutal killer who savagely murdered a man in the victim's own home was jailed for life for the "terrible crime ".

William McLean stabbed Ryan Low 13 times in the fatal attack at a top floor flat in Springbank Road, Paisley, in Renfrewshire, on June 25 in 2020.

The victim's body was only found four days later after police broke into the flat and found him lying dead on the kitchen floor.

McLean, 21, was a teenager when he committed the murder and was ordered to serve 13 and a half years in jail before he can seek to apply for parole.

A judge told McLean at the High Court in Edinburgh: "At the time you carried out this terrible crime you were still only 19 years old."

Ryan Low was found murdered in his flat at Springbank Road. (Facebook)

Lord Richardson said that he also had regard to McLean having been previously diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder.

The judge said he had considered victim impact statements provided by relatives of the deceased and told McLean: "It is all too apparent from these documents that your actions that day had, and continue to have, a profound impact on his family."

The court heard that former delivery driver McLean has previous convictions for offences including assault and assault and robbery and had been released from a previous prison term a fortnight before he carried out the murder of Mr Low, 32.

Advocate depute John Keenan said that it was understood that McLean had only met Mr Low on one occasion prior to the fatal attack.

Police on the scene in Paisley (Daily Record)

The prosecutor said that Mr Low had arranged to visit his sister in Edinburgh on the day that he was murdered.

He said: "Due to concerns raised by his sister the police broke into the locus on June 29 2020 and found Ryan Low dead, lying on the kitchen floor."

On the evening of June 24, McLean had been at his victim's home with others drinking.

One man who left around midnight said there was nothing untoward going on when he departed.

Mr Keenan said it appeared that in the early hours on June 25 there was a disagreement between McLean and Mr Low which led to the teenager arming himself with a knife and attacking his victim first in the living room and then in the adjacent kitchen.

The prosecutor said: "The precise form and nature of the assault on the deceased on June 25 2020 will probably never be known."

Police at the back of the Paisley property (PDE)

McLean later told a family friend: "I've went too far. I've messed up. I'm covered in blood."

He said his shorts and shoes were covered in blood.

He later contacted a relative and asked her to pick him up in Clydebank.

"She collected him and noted he appeared to be under the influence of drink or drugs. He refused to say where he had been," said Mr Keenan.

The court heard that a blood stained knife blade was found down the back of a sofa at Mr Low's home which provided a DNA match to the victim.

McLean said during a police interview that he had been at the flat but claimed that when he left in the morning Mr Low was alive.

The victim was found to have died as a result of a stab wound to the neck.

McLean admitted assaulting and murdering Mr Low by repeatedly stabbing him on the head and body, during a court appearance last month.

Defence counsel Thomas Ross QC said McLean came from a background of "severe neglect" and was in local authority care before his second birthday.

Police at the back of the Paisley property (PDE)

He said he was assessed and diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder in 2016 and added: "He is, perhaps as a result of his condition, a man of few words."

The defence counsel said that McLean was very young at the time of the murder and sentencing guidelines for young people applied to his case.

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