A grandfather is facing life imprisonment after he admitted murdering a teenager neighbour by stabbing him in the head with a broken golf club.
Daniel Hambleton was knocked to the ground when his killer's son chased him and threw part of the golf club at his head. Father and son then beat him before he received the fatal head wound.
At the High Court in Edinburgh on Thursday, 48-year-old Colin Gourley admitted murdering the 19-year-old in May this year. His 25-year-old son, Dean, had also originally been charged with murder, but his guilty plea to assault to severe injury was accepted.
The court heard father and son had been on separate nights out drinking before meeting up in a pub in Dalkeith. They continued to drink when they returned to Gourley senior's home in Mayfield's Kippielaw Park.
Advocate depute Keith Stewart told the court that their victim shared a flat with his parents in the same block.
At around 2am, the drunken father and son began knocking on Daniel Hambleton's door demanding a fight.
Mr Stewart said: "The deceased took up the challenge to go outside. He dressed and left the house by the back door. He was seen in the road holding a golf club. He had kept the club in the back garden."
Gourlay junior, an unemployed father-of-two, went towards the teenager who began to back away. He took the club from Mr Hambleton and it got broken in two.
The teenager began to run with Gourlay junior chasing him. He threw the head of the golf club and Mr Hambleton was hit on the head and felled.
Both father and son then began kicking the victim as he lay on the pavement, before Gourlay senior picked up the weapon and dealt the fatal blow.
Mr Stewart said: "Colin Gourlay picked up the golf club head and struck the deceased with it, aiming a downward blow in a stabbing motion with the broken shaft of the club."
"The broken end penetrated the skull and, having done so, entered the cranial cavity and penetrated the tissues of the brain."
The victim was taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and found to have suffered an extensive brain injury. Life support treatment was withdrawn the following day after doctors spoke to members of his family.
Andrew Lamb QC, for Gourlay senior, said the murderer's previous convictions were "extremely minor" and he had never served a jail sentence previously.
He will be jailed for life but the judge, John Morris QC, will also have to fix a minimum term he must serve.
The temporary judge deferred sentence on both of the Gourlays and remanded the father in custody.
