SENTENCING STATEMENTS

On sentencing, Lord Arthurson said:

"Francis McConnachie, you were on 28 November 2024, at Glasgow High Court, convicted by a jury of the crime of culpable homicide.   

At some time after or around 9.15pm on 24 February 2023 in a public place located in a residential housing area at Coldstream Crescent, Wishaw, you assaulted and killed Thomas O’Rourke, a young man who was then only 21 years of age.  You repeatedly punched him on the head and body, repeatedly struck him on the body with a knife and inflicted blunt force trauma to his head.

In particular, you inflicted the following stab wounds: first, an oblique stab wound on the front of the left side of the chest, measuring 2.6cm in length and with a depth of 6.5cm, which blow caused a slit measuring 1.1cm in the surface of the first rib of your victim; second, a horizontal stab wound on the front of the chest, measuring 1.1cm in length and with a depth of 1cm, which blow caused a notch measuring 0.6cm in the surface of the left side outer sternum; third, an almost horizontal stab wound on the left side of the front chest, measuring 3.3cm in length and with a depth of approximately 6 to 7cm, which cut through completely the cartilage part of the seventh rib, almost completely through the cartilage part of the sixth rib and notched the eighth rib, penetrating the left side of the outer aspect of the pericardium and entering the lower part of the left ventricle of the heart through a slit measuring 2cm; and fourth, a stab wound on the middle third of the back measuring 1.5cm in length and with a depth of between 6 and 7cm.  Death was caused by the wound inflicted which penetrated the heart and the sac around it. Within the chest cavity 1.5 litres of blood and blood clot was located at post-mortem and a collapsed lung was reported.

The first paramedics arrived at the scene at around 21.35 hours and, intensive intervention efforts having been unsuccessful, Mr O’Rourke was pronounced dead in an ambulance at the scene at 22.07 hours.  It was reported that Mr O’Rourke had been in cardiac arrest since 21.30 hours.

In convicting you of the crime of culpable homicide, the jury in this case has plainly rejected your position of self-defence, but has further held that provocation, such as would operate to reduce the crime of murder charged on the indictment to that of culpable homicide, was engaged in the circumstances of this case.  On your own evidence you left your home and involved yourself in a confrontation with the deceased in a public space within a residential area, having earlier consumed alcohol and taken valium. In particular, you inflicted multiple knife wounds upon your victim, the wound which penetrated his heart being the direct cause of his death. The jury has held that there was a sound evidential basis for provocation, you having been the subject of a knife attack by the deceased, and that therefore the criminal nature and quality of what was otherwise a murderous attack by you, which led to the death of your victim, should be reflected in a verdict of culpable homicide.

You are presently aged 36.  You have a single summary relevant conviction for an offence of violence.  You have no other previous convictions of any nature.

I have read the criminal justice social work report which is now available in respect of you. In addition, I have this morning listened with care to the submissions advanced on your behalf in mitigation by your senior counsel, and note in particular what has been said by him regarding your acceptance of responsibility for causing the death of Mr O’Rourke; the remorse and empathy demonstrated by you, not only verbally but by way of your practical assistance to the deceased in the aftermath of these tragic events; your pro-social life to date; your very limited criminal record; and in particular the background circumstances related to the offence itself, whereby by its verdict the jury has accepted that the deceased himself retrieved a knife from his parents’ home and then returned, making threats to kill you as was observed and reported in evidence by independent sober witnesses at the time.

I have further read and considered impact statements prepared by the sister and partner of the deceased. You should be under no illusions as to the scale of the dreadful loss sustained by Mr O’Rourke’s family in respect of their bereavement, occasioned as that was by your fatal attack upon him.

In selecting an appropriate disposal in your case, I take into account principally the gravity of the crime of culpable homicide of which you now stand convicted, a crime in the course of which you inflicted significant and fatal instrumental violence upon your young victim with a bladed weapon, all while under the influence of alcohol and valium.  In addition, I take into account your personal circumstances as these have been conveyed to the court by your senior counsel and in the course of the evidence led at your trial and in the criminal justice social work report, together with all of the cogent mitigatory material to which I have already made reference.  In the whole circumstances, on any view the court will require to impose upon you today a substantial custodial sentence.

Turning finally, therefore, to disposal, on charge three of this indictment as amended by the jury on returning its verdict, you will serve a period of imprisonment of 8 years. This sentence will be backdated to the date of your initial remand into custody in these proceedings, namely 27 February 2023."