A thug who claimed his victim suffered a fatal fall has been convicted of killing him.
Alexander Walker, 33, carried out a brutal attack on friend James Curran in the stairwell of flats in Tradeston, Glasgow on March 21 last year. The 38 year-old suffered horrific internal injuries having been kicked or stamped upon.
Walker had stood trial at the High Court in Glasgow accused of murder. But, jurors on Thursday found him guilty of the lesser charge of culpable homicide.
Walker - who already had a history of violence - will be sentenced next month. Paramedic John Shea earlier told the trial how he was called to the flats in the city's Wallace Street and found Mr Curran in "a bad way".
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Walker was also still there and he claimed his friend had "fallen two flights of stairs". Mr Curran - known as Jimmy - did not survive and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Mr Shea told jurors: "When I told him (Walker) his friend had gone, he seemed heartbroken. There were tears, crying in anguish...shouting his name 'Jimmy, Jimmy'."
But, Walker had fled by the time police arrived instead meeting a friend in the city centre.
In his closing speech, prosecutor Greg Farrell told jurors: "Walker did not seem upset or distressed when he spoke to (the friend) not long after he had left Wallace Street."
He was later quizzed by police at the place he had been living at in Easterhouse, Glasgow. Included in his statement were claims Mr Curran had taken drugs that day, fell down stairs at the flats, got up before taking another "tumble" and ending up unresponsive.
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The court heard Mr Curran died having suffered severe internal abdominal injuries. Mr Farrell said "accidents do happen", but that pathology evidence deemed it not "plausible" a fall would have caused that.
It emerged after the verdict Walker had a string of convictions including for serious assault in 2011. Judge John Morris QC remanded him in custody and deferred sentencing for reports.
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