Mark Moncrieff, 33, (pictured) pounced on Brian Boyle outside his flat in Dennistoun, Glasgow and delivered the fatal blow. Moncrieff will serve a minimum of 20 years behind bars after he was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow
Two serial thugs have been jailed for 38-and-a-half years after they struck a father with a knife and hammer as he protected his daughter.
Paul McCann, 38, and Mark Moncrieff, 33, pounced on Brian Boyle, 56, outside his flat in Glasgow’s Dennistoun in July last year.
Mr Boyle left his home with his daughter Kayleigh Boyle, 23, after hearing shouting outside and her car being vandalised.
McCann and Moncrieff repeatedly struck Mr Boyle with a lock-back knife and hammer and died, in the arms of his daughter, following a stab wound to the heart
The men were convicted of murder today following a three-week trial at the High Court in Glasgow.
And it emerged the pair already had a horrendous record for violence with McCann holding 36 convictions and was awaiting sentencing at the time of the killing for an offence of threatening and abusive behaviour.
Moncrieff’s crime sheet ran to 12 convictions with an attempted murder in 2004.
Lord Boyd jailed the pair for life with Moncrieff, who delivered the fatal blow, serving a minimum of 20 years behind bars and McCann 18-and-a-half years.
Brain Boyle, 56, (left) was killed trying to protect his daughter Kayleigh Boyle, 23, (right). Mr Boyle suffered a fatal stab wound to the heart
Mr Boyle collapsed on the ground after being repeatedly struck with a knife and a hammer.
Kayleigh said: ‘He saved my life. If he had not jumped in front of me, it would have been me who would have been stabbed.’
Jurors heard how the Boyle family had no idea why the killing happened.
The judge said: ‘Why Brian Boyle died is beyond me. Perhaps the only explanation was that you were openly engaging in the mindless violence you are used to.’
He paid tribute to Kayleigh stating she showed ‘considerable courage’ facing the thugs from the witness box.
The judge added: ‘She had to deal with the horror of seeing her father die in her arms before her.’
The pair showed no remorse as they were led to the cells with Moncrieff, nicknamed Snowball, appearing to taunt Brian’s emotional family in court.
Kayleigh watched as her father, Brian Boyle , was smacked with a hammer. She tried to stop the bleeding but it was not enough to save him
Domenica Smith, 22, also faced the murder charge, but jurors returned a not proven verdict.
The trial heard how the thugs and Smith stormed up to another property near the Boyle home shortly before the killing.
The group were armed and appeared to looking for a man called ‘Connor’, believed to be an ex-boyfriend of Smith.
Shortly after they were spotted outside the Boyle’s flat in Glasgow’s Reidvale Street after Kayleigh heard a noise outside.
Kayleigh watched as Smith hit her car with a hammer while McCann and Moncrieff were nearby.
Mr Boyle and his daughter ran downstairs to confront Smith but Kayleigh said she was attacked before she even stepped out on the street.
Kayleigh recalled how an ‘angry’ Smith approached her with a hammer.
She added: ‘She [Smith] was acting like an animal…clawing at my arms, clawing at my face, pulling my hair.’
Kayleigh said she managed to get Smith away before a ‘fat person’ kicked her.
She then saw her father, Mr Boyle, trying to ‘defend’ himself from a ‘skinny’ man.
Mr Boyle was then smacked with a hammer as his daughter Kayleigh raced to his aid.
And Kayleigh told prosecutor Michael Meehan: ‘The closer I got to him [Brian Boyle], the big fat guy appeared from behind me.’
The daughter said her father was then struck with a lock-back knife as if the attacker ‘was not going to stop’.
The trio fled as her dying father begged his daughter to call for an ambulance.
Kayleigh said: ‘He then hit the deck. He tried to grab onto a fence, but he did not have the energy. He just collapsed.
The High Court in Glasgow where Montcrieff and McCann were sentenced to 38-and-a-half years behind bars
‘I tried to stop the bleeding and tried to save him. No one was able to save him.’
She said Mr Boyle had ‘come to defend his daughter like any father would’ that day.
‘He was an excellent dad and would do anything to defend me’, Kayleigh said.
Asked why the incident may have happened, she told the court: ‘That is something I hope to find out by the end of this trial.’
Moncrieff gave evidence during the trial and claimed he had not meant to kill Mr Boyle.
The thug claimed: ‘I did not want the guy to die. I do not want to be standing here.’
McCann and Moncrieff were also convicted of threatening and abusive behaviour.
Smith was found guilty of two charges of the crime as well as assaulting Kayleigh.
She had been on remand and was bailed pending her sentencing at a later date.