Men guilty of vigilante killing

The court heard how the pair planned to attack Mr Fallen

Two men have been found guilty of battering an elderly man to death after he was accused of being a paedophile.

John Fallen, 69, known as Jack, died at his Dunfermline home on New Year's Day.

The High Court in Dunfermline heard how Neil Dougal and his brother-in-law Mark Hunter went to his home and carried out a punishment beating.

The pensioner died from a brain haemorrhage. Dougal, 36, and Hunter, 39, were convicted of culpable homicide by a unanimous verdict.

Mr Fallen, a retired dockyard worker, had been arrested by police only six days earlier and charged with abusing a young girl, but had been allowed to return to his home.

During the trial, which lasted eight days, each man blamed the other for the crime.

They put on hats and gloves and tricked their way into his home late at night with the purpose of assaulting him, and in the course of that assault he died Alex Prentice Prosecuting

A pathologist said Mr Fallen had received up to 20 blows, kicks and stamps, all over his body, some of which were so powerful that the two men left the pattern of their training shoes imprinted on his skin.

One blow was so serious it killed him.

The court heard the incident came after Mr Fallen had been accused of sexually abusing a young girl and police said in evidence that he had admitted the allegations were true.

Dougal, of Julian Court, Glenrothes, and Hunter, of Robertson Road, Dunfermline, went round to Mr Fallen's home after hearing what he had done.

Dougal claimed Hunter had egged him on, as they sat drinking in a house close to Mr Fallen's in Dunfermline's Haig Crescent.

'Ugly conversation'

Dougal admitted that his family wanted "to go round and sort old Jack out".

Alex Prentice, prosecuting, said it had been "an ugly conversation" during which Hunter and Dougal hatched their plan to administer the beating.

He said: "They put on hats and gloves and tricked their way into his home late at night with the purpose of assaulting him, and in the course of that assault he died."

Judge Lord Brodie deferred sentence until 18 January at the High Court in Forfar and remanded both men in custody.

If the law had been left in our hands, Mr Fallen would not be dead, two young fathers would not be facing years in jail Chief Superintendent Jim Rodden Fife Constabulary

They had initially been charged with murder, but faced trial for culpable homicide, with the Crown accepting they had not intended to kill the old man.

After the case, Chief Superintendent Jim Rodden, head of Fife Constabulary's Western Davison, condemned their actions.

He said: "Vigilante action is invariably based on misguided, unreliable and sometimes malicious information.

"It has no positive contribution to make to society, and as this case demonstrates, the far-reaching negative impact is plain for all to see."

Senior investigating officer Detective Inspector Alex Watson added: "Vigilante action is not noble, and is never justified.

"If the law had been left in our hands, Mr Fallen would not be dead, two young fathers would not be facing years in jail, and their own children would not now have to grow up with a missing parent."