Pensioner's killers have their prison sentences cut

Two teenagers and a man who murdered a pensioner in his own home in Edinburgh have had their jail terms cut.

Keirin McMillan, 20, and Levi Brown, 17, received life sentences alongside Aron McMillan, 17, for killing 67-year-old Alasdair Forsyth last year.

Keirin was ordered to serve at least 18 years in jail after the vicious assault in which the victim suffered a horrific catalogue of injuries. He was 19 at the time of the attack.

Aron McMillan was 16 when he took part in the attack. He was told he would serve a minimum of 17 years and three months.

Brown was ordered to serve at least 17 years for the killing. He was just 15 when he took part in the murder and robbery of Mr Forsyth at the flat where he lived alone.

Last week judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal reduced the punishment parts of the life sentences given to the trio.

Keirin will now serve 16 years before he will be able to apply for parole. Levi and Aron will both serve 13 years before they can do so.

Lord Uist previously told the trio at the High Court in Edinburgh: “Mr Forsyth suffered the most terrible injuries. He sustained a total of 80 injuries and died of blunt force chest trauma.

“It is a scandal in a supposedly civilised society that a man should meet his death in this manner.

“The attack on Mr Forsyth was a planned robbery in which each of you took a tool to be used as a weapon, namely a screwdriver, a wrench and a hammer, and battered him to death in his home.”

The McMillan brothers and Hunter had earlier denied murdering Mr Forsyth at his home in Clearburn Road, in the city’s Prestonfield area on February 21, 2019.

All three were found guilty of the crime following a trial.

After he was detained Aron McMillan made a phone call from a youth jail in which he was recorded as saying that the attack on Mr Forsyth was for money. He added: “We were all just out our nut.”

The trio attacked their victim with a screwdriver, hammer, wrench, his walking stick and picture frames and kicked and stamped on him. The victim sustained extensive rib fractures amongst an array of injuries.

The trio’s legal teams went to the Court of Criminal Appeal last week. A court official confirmed the outcome of the appeals on Thursday.