Murder teenager's sentence increased

Mrs Currie was attacked in broad daylight

A teenager who murdered a pensioner in Glasgow has had his sentence increased by appeal judges.

Gary McGowan, who is 16, will now serve a minimum of 10 years for the murder of great grandmother Elizabeth Currie in Glasgow on 19 June last year.

Mrs Currie, 67, was stabbed in the head during a vicious robbery on the banks of the River Clyde near the city centre.

At the original trial at the High Court in Edinburgh, the judge, Lord Johnstone, described the case as one of the worst he had ever seen.

Garry McGowan is led away from the high court

McGowan, who was 15 at the time, had been ordered to be detained without limit of time - a juvenile life sentence.

But because of his age he was sentenced in a way that would have let him apply for release after six years.

He was high on a cocktail of valium, vodka and buckfast wine when he attacked Mrs Currie, who was out walking with her husband.

McGowan, from the Gorbals area of the city, grabbed her handbag before stabbing her in the temple with a knife.

Mrs Currie fell into a coma, and died two days later.

Elizabeth Currie had been on a shopping trip

The Court of Criminal Appeal heard that the approach taken by the original trial judge should only apply where discretionary life sentences are passed, and not in the case of murder where the penalty of life is fixed by statute.

Appeal judges ordered that his sentence should be increased to a minimum of 10 years and said they would give reasons in writing at a later date.

After the original trial, Mrs Currie family said expressed shock at the sentence handed down to her killer.

Mrs Currie's husband Jimmy, 68, had said: "I hope he dies in there. He knew what he was doing that day. It was just viciousness, just badness."

Mrs Currie's son-in-law, David McGinlay, 43, said: "It's unbelievable. Six years, what's that? You get more for robbing a bank."