Boy, 15, is guilty of murdering his granny

From the Evening Times

A 15-year-old boy who stabbed his sleeping gran 23 times has been convicted of her murder.

Thomas McAlpine, now 16, admitted killing Elizabeth McAlpine, 60, but claimed he wasn't responsible for his actions.

He said he became a raging killer after taking her sleeping tablets in a suicide bid.

During a chilling police interview McAlpine lied repeatedly saying he didn't know what had happened to his gran.

Finally, he told detectives: "It was me."

But, a jury at the High Court in Glasgow didn't believe his suicide story.

[...]

They convicted him of butchering his gran on June 15, last year, hours after she told him she would wash her hands of him because he had been suspended from school.

After the verdict, McAlpine's family wept as he sat in the dock with his head bowed.

Consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Thomas White, 48, said McAlpine could have been suffering from a side effect known as paradoxical rage where instead of causing drowsiness, the tablets make people angry.

He said: "At the time of the offence he would at least in part have been unable to inhibit his behaviour."

McAlpine denied murdering his grandmother.

Judge Lord Clarke deferred sentence.