Youth locked up for stab killing

Ross Anderson was born in Cornton Vale women's prison

A teenager has been sentenced to 11-and-a-half years in detention for stabbing another teenager to death.

Ross Anderson, who was 16 at the time of the attack, repeatedly knifed Adam Paton, 17, in the head and body in Montrose on 24 April last year.

Anderson was originally charged with murdering Mr Paton, from Brechin, but a jury earlier convicted him of the reduced charge of culpable homicide.

He had been released on bail two weeks before the killing.

The attack followed a row in a flat, with trouble spilling out into North Street in Montrose.

At the High Court in Edinburgh, Lord Carloway told Anderson that jurors no doubt had in mind that there was provocation in the form of challenging behaviour and a punch from the deceased.

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But the judge said that Anderson had consciously taken a knife from the kitchen of a flat to use it in the street.

He told the killer: "Despite your youth, the reports which I have consider you are a continuing danger to members of the public and I have no doubt at this point that is so."

Anderson had been born in Cornton Vale prison to a heroin addict mother, and his father, who was apparently abusive towards his son, died in police custody.

Lord Carloway said: "It is hard to imagine a more deprived and tragic start to life."

Adam Paton, 17, was repeatedly stabbed in the head and body

But he added it was clear that Anderson rejected his adoptive parents' attempts to provide him with a good lifestyle and instead he turned to drug and alcohol abuse.

The judge said it culminated in the killing of Mr Paton, who was weeks away from his 18th birthday.

Lord Carloway told Anderson that six months of his sentence was due to bail violations.

He had appeared at Arbroath Sheriff Court on 10 April, just 14 days before the killing, over allegations of breach of the peace and vandalism.

He had also previously been arrested in August 2007 for assaulting and robbing a woman and was released on bail, although he was later given a nine-month sentence for the offence.

Lord Carloway ordered that Anderson should be kept under supervision for a further four years after his release.