Repeat offender jailed for murder of vulnerable man in flat who had been on hospital release

A knife attacker who murdered a vulnerable man who was spending a few hours out of hospital has been jailed for life.

Violent repeat offender Jamie Boulton stabbed Garry O’Neill, 69, as he sat on a couch in a flat in Primrose Street in the Leith area of Edinburgh.

Boulton, 55, ran into the flat armed with a large knife and plunged the weapon into his victim’s body, inflicting fatal internal damage.

A judge told Boulton that his evidence during an earlier trial that the victim had somehow jumped onto a knife he was holding was “preposterous”.

Lady Poole ordered Boulton to serve a minimum of 18 years in jail before he could be considered for parole.

The judge told him at the High Court in Edinburgh: “Nobody deserves to have their life ended in this way.”

She pointed out that the victim was vulnerable as, at the time, he was a resident in a hospital and had just been out for a few hours when the fatal attack occurred.

Lady Poole said victim impact statements from Mr O’Neill’s daughter and former partner showed that he was loved and missed.

She told Boulton: “You have an appalling criminal record.” He has been convicted of offences on 45 occasions, including serious violence and knife crime.

Boulton, a prisoner in Edinburgh’s Saughton jail, had denied murdering Mr O’Neill on June 6, 2023, at the flat in Primrose Street but was unanimously found guilty of the crime by a jury.

Boulton’s younger brother, Nathan Boulton, 49, was jailed for 14 months after trying to cover up his older sibling’s crime by taking the murder weapon and clothes worn during the attack and hiding them in a drain and bin.

He denied attempting to defeat the ends of justice but was also unanimously convicted of the offence after a trial.

Lady Poole told the younger Boulton brother, formerly of Lower Granton Road, that a background report prepared on him showed that he has little insight into his offending.

The judge said he had a difficult childhood and was exposed to illicit substances from the age of seven. She added that his older brother’s influence was “not a positive one”.

Defence solicitor advocate Iain McSporran KC said that Jamie Boulton has a history of drug addiction problems and mental health issues.

He said the older brother continued to deny the deliberate act of taking the victim’s life, but added that he acknowledged that if he had not taken the knife into the property then the death would not have happened.

Mr McSporran said the older brother said to him: “It should not have gone that far.”