A HEARTBROKEN Johnstone mum has told how she named her baby boy after her brother who was tragically stabbed to death.
Lisa-Marie Winters was left devastated when younger sibling Johnny died in a senseless knife attack in a town centre street.
She gave birth to her first child the following year and named the new arrival John-Scott, in his honour.
Now 29-year-old Lisa-Marie and her family are experiencing fresh grief after a teenager admitted killing Johnny, reports our sister title The Gazette.
Jack McBride, who was just 17 at the time of the incident, had faced a murder rap but prosecutors accepted his guilty plea to the reduced charge of culpable homicide this week.
He will learn his fate next month, with Lisa-Marie hoping he gets the “maximum sentence available.”
She told The Gazette: “These past two years have been horrible and, basically, I’ve been holding off from grieving while all this has been going on.
“Johnny didn’t get to see his nephew, who I’ve named after him.”
McBride plunged a kitchen knife into 26-year-old Johnny’s heart during a confrontation on April 1, 2020.
The High Court in Glasgow heard that both men lived in High Street, Johnstone, and McBride suspected Johnny was responsible for the door of his family home being torched in 2019.
On the night of the fatal attack, McBride called his ex-girlfriend, ranting about the victim.
This included him stating: “You think I cannot kill someone? You think my bark is bigger than my bite?
“Johnny Winters thinks he is a name. I will be a name.”
McBride then stood outside Johnny’s flat and yelled at him to come downstairs.
Prosecutor Neil McCulloch told the court: “McBride video recorded this interaction and shared it over Snapchat.
“McBride can be seen in the recording shouting up at the window, demanding he come out.
“Johnny Winters can be heard telling him to come up.
“The recording ends with a selfie of McBride captioned ‘gametime’.”
Jurors heard that Johnny struck McBride with the “blunt side” of a hatchet.
The teenager responded by stabbing Johnny once in the chest with the knife before running off.
Medics soon arrived but were unable to save Johnny.
McBride, now 19, was remanded in custody by judge Lady Haldane, who deferred sentencing until next month so background reports can be carried out.
Lisa-Marie said: “Johnny’s death didn’t need to happen.
“Me and my dad have been hit the hardest by his death.
“This is me just starting to grieve and it’s hard to think I’ll go through the rest of my life without Johnny here.”
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here