A teenage drug dealer has been jailed for five and a half years after disarming a robber and stabbing him to death with his own knife.

James Baillie died after being stabbed while trying to rob the 17-year-old of drugs in Falkirk earlier this year.

The victim's accomplice was also stabbed by the young killer who can't be named for legal reasons.

During his trial the High Court In Edinburgh heard the dealer had sold crack-cocaine to Mr Baillie on June 26 of this year.

Baillie went on to tell his half brother George Merrilees how the teenager, who had just moved to Falkirk from London two days previously, "looked nervous" during the transaction and had a large quantity of the class A drug.

So the next day the 40-year-old armed himself with a knife and returned to the flat on Burnside Road, Camelon, with Merrilees, who was armed with an extendable baton, in a bid to steal the drugs.

The youngster took the knife off Mr Baillie and stabbed him and Mr Merrilees seven times each in a "ferocious" attack.

Then, when he began to leave the flat, he was stopped by other occupants and punched.

One of them said: "What have you done? You stabbed him, you murdered a boy. He's dead."

Emergency services were called and the youth fled back to England.

He later handed himself into a London police station and was brought back to Scotland to face trial where he admitted killing Mr Baillie by repeatedly stabbing him on the body with a knife.

He also pled guilty to assaulting Mr Merrilees to his severe injury, permanent disfigurement and to the danger of his life by repeatedly stabbing him.

Mr Merrilees underwent surgery and was found to have internal bleeding from an artery which was life threatening.

Mr Baillie was found to have sustained a fatal wound which was 17 centimetres deep and damaged his heart.

The young killer, who has no previous convictions, was told that he would have faced an eight-year sentence, but for his guilty pleas.

A judge said: "This is a tragic case for all concerned in which there are both mitigating and aggravating features."

Lord Beckett continued: "In your favour is that you have no previous convictions. It is apparent you were the intended victim of a planned assault and robbery."

But the judge said that the teenager was targeted because of what he was doing and had and that his response was "ferocious".

Lord Beckett said: "A life has been lost with all the heartache and loss that follows for Mr Baillie's family and friends."

Defence counsel Derek Ogg QC said the teenager had expressed shock at his involvement in the death of another person.

A phone call he made with his mother while in custody was recorded in which he said: "How is it my fault if he's tried to kill me? How am I not going to do anything?"

He said he could have coped if they were children but could not cope against grown men.