Man kicked to death at drink den

Thomas Muir will be sentenced next month.

A man who kicked another man to death after he turned down a drink has been found guilty of murder.

Thomas Muir, 44, paused during his frenzied attack to cover Val Dalzell's head with a jacket to stop his blood going on the floor.

Mr Dalzell's near-naked body was found on the floor of a drinking den in Whitecrook Street, Clydebank.

Judge Lord Menzies has called for background reports. Muir will be sentenced next month

He told police how Valentine Dalzell was trying to sleep off a drinking binge, under a quilt, wearing only his socks and underpants.

A murder trial heard that when Mr Dalzell, 48, refused another drink, Muir challenged him to fight.

Muir later told police: "He was very cheeky to me. I turned round and said 'Would you like to put your clothes on, mate, and we will go outside and have a square go.'

"He said 'no' then I jumped for his head."

But at the High Court in Edinburgh he denied murder, claiming someone else was just as likely to have inflicted the fatal blow.

By a majority, the jury, found Muir guilty of murder.