One among Scotland's most harmful prisoners is probably going by no means to be freed after he admitted murdering a fellow inmate. James O'Rourke - already a convicted killer - choked to dying Dean Ramsey, 30, in what a decide described as a "brutal execution".
The 52 year-old was then clocked shaking palms with different prisoners at HMP Glenochil in Clacks after the assault on January 9 2021. He boasted: "Simply because I'm outdated, he thinks I'm dafty. Effectively, it value him his life."
O'Rourke was in the present day sentenced to a minimal 23 years after he pled responsible to a homicide cost on the Excessive Court docket in Glasgow. He has been behinds bars at varied prisons since 1992.
This was after his first homicide conviction for killing a person in Airdrie, Lanarkshire. In 1997, he was then sentenced to 6 years after a jail officer and a nurse had been held hostage throughout an earlier stint at Glenochil.
O'Rourke was given one other eight years in 2002 for assault and abduction then 4 years for additional assault in 2004. He was subsequent sentenced to eight years in 2005 for stabbing a jail escort and a senior jail official at HMP Kilmarnock.
O'Rourke was lastly handed a nine-year time period in 2019 after making an attempt to homicide one other prisoner on the identical jail. Lord Arthurson in the present day instructed him: "You at the moment are 52. You come earlier than this court docket with by far the worst legal file I've encountered up to now as a decide.
"This crime might be categorised because the callous, remorseless and fully brutal execution of a fellow prisoner." The court docket heard how O'Rourke and Ramsey had been seen chatting to one another earlier than the killing.
Ramsey was described as "a quiet prisoner", who "stored himself to himself". He was seen going into O'Rourke's cell at 10.49am that morning.
Prosecutor Greg Farrell stated: "That is the final sighting on CCTV of Ramsey alive. Solely he and O'Rourke are within the cell right now." Round 10 minutes later, the killer left, wiped his head and palms earlier than chatting to a different inmate.
He then initially confessed to a guard that he had "harm somebody". Jail officers went to discover a bleeding Ramsey mendacity within the cell together with his wrists certain and a ligature round his neck.
Mr Farrell: "One officer noticed O'Rourke shaking palms with different inmates and overheard him telling them: 'That is me away'."
Makes an attempt had been made to assist Ramsey on the jail earlier than he was rushed to hospital. He by no means recovered and died two days later having suffered an unsurvivable mind harm.
O'Rourke was described as "calm" after the homicide and admitted he had used a "line" to kill Ramsey - referring to a torn mattress sheet used to strangle him. He was allowed to name his mom and instructed her: "I f***ing tied him up and gave him the remedy."
O'Rourke was arrested and claimed he had not meant to kill Ramsey. He instructed police: "I'm responsible right here. No f***ing doubt."
Serial thug O'Rourke additionally stated he was "gutted" for Ramsey's household. Thomas Ross QC, defending, in the present day instructed the court docket: "He accepts, by tendering the responsible plea, that he's committing himself to spending the remainder of his life in custody."
Lord Arthurson minimize the punishment a part of the life sentence from 25 years on account of O'Rourke admitting to the homicide.
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