A high risk, convicted rapist who brutally murdered a man in a premeditated knife attack was jailed for life today.
A judge ordered that Richard Wotherspoon must serve at least 17 years in prison for the murder of his victim in Bellshill, in North Lanarkshire. Lord Armstrong told Wotherspoon, 33: "You have pleaded guilty to the murder of Samuel Hamilton with a bladed weapon. You inflicted five stab wounds on your victim."
One of the knife wounds penetrated the neck of Mr Hamilton, 56, and damaged a carotid artery and jugular vein. Lord Armstrong said at the High Court in Edinburgh: "This crime was premeditated by you. You went out looking for your victim armed with a knife and with the intention of causing him injury. You had previously told others of your intention to do him harm."
The judge said: "You have been assessed as representing a maximum risk of re-offending and as presenting a serious risk of harm to others." The court heard that Wotherspoon has amassed an extensive criminal record involving 33 previous convictions, including for rape in 2006.
Lord Armstrong said that Wotherspoon's actions had caused "devastating loss and emotional harm" to relatives of the victim. The judge said: "Nothing I can say or do can compensate for their loss and I suspect no sentence would ever be regarded as sufficient in their eyes."
Lord Armstrong said that he noted Wotherspoon experienced a difficult childhood and has expressed regret for his actions. He told him that he would have set a 20 year punishment part for the life sentence - the minimum term to be served before a murderer can seek release on parole - if he was convicted after a trial, but that would be reduced following his earlier guilty plea.
Wotherspoon, a prisoner at Addiewell jail in West Lothian, admitted assaulting and murdering Mr Hamilton on May 18 last year at Thorndean Avenue, in Bellshill. He followed him into a garden at the address and to the front door, shouted and swore at him, made threats and repeatedly struck him on the head, neck and body with the knife.
The court heard that there was a previous incident in 2021 between Mr Hamilton and Wotherspoon outside the home of the victim's daughter and Wotherspoon had later needed hospital treatment. He then turned up back at the house of Mr Hamilton's daughter armed with an axe. Wotherspoon was later jailed for 18 months in April 2022 but the sentence was backdated to when he was first remanded and he was freed.
In the weeks before the murder he was seen in the street where Mr Hamilton lived and told others that he intended to harm him. On the night of the killing Wotherspoon watched the televised Rangers via Eintracht Frankfurt Europa league final at his sister's home and Mr Hamilton also watched the game at his daughter's address.
When Mr Hamilton returned home he was met by Wotherspoon who yelled at him: "Sammy, Sammy.......me and you. Know what I mean."
The older man ignored him and made his way to a garden area but was tailed by Wotherspoon before he was attacked. A neighbour came to the aid of the victim who said: "I've been stabbed in the neck."
Wotherspoon was arrested two days later and blood stains on his jogging bottoms and a phone linked him to the murder Defence counsel Victoria Young told the court that a background report prepared on Wotherspoon ahead of today's sentencing hearing "did not make for easy reading" but he had indicated regret for his actions.
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