{"id":417283,"date":"2025-09-12T02:03:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T02:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/417283\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T02:03:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T02:03:16","slug":"killer-threw-boiling-water-and-sugar-on-victim-before-stabbing-him-to-death-in-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/417283\/","title":{"rendered":"Killer threw boiling water and sugar on victim before stabbing him to death in heart"},"content":{"rendered":"

A killer who carried out a \u201cnapalm\u201d attack on a man has been convicted of murder.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gavin Gallagher hurled a mixture of boiling water and sugar over Stephen Gray, 23, before fatally stabbing him in the heart.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old claimed he had been acting in self-defence, insisting he was in \u201cflight or fight\u201d mode at the time of the incident in Govan, Glasgow, on November 3 2023.<\/p>\n

But, jurors found him guilty of the killing and he faces a life sentence when he returns to the dock next month.<\/p>\n

Gallagher had been in the company of Mr Gray and others that day at a flat.<\/p>\n

In his evidence, he claimed Mr Gray had ended up \u201craging\u201d at one stage and left.<\/p>\n

The victim then returned, with only Gallagher left in the flat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The killer told jurors he looked through the peephole and claimed Mr Gray was armed.<\/p>\n

Gallagher said he opened the door having grabbed a blade himself and a kettle of boiling water.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He had hoped to apparently \u201cscare\u201d Mr Gray, but Gallagher alleged the man ran at him.<\/p>\n

His KC John Scullion put to him: \u201cHow did you react?\u201d<\/p>\n

Gallagher said: \u201cFight or flight. I lunged.\u201d<\/p>\n

He flung the water at him and fatally stabbed Mr Gray adding: \u201cHe dropped instantly, My heart sank. It was horrible.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was Gallagher who dialled 999. He claimed in court to \u201cfeel guilty every day\u201d at what he had done.<\/p>\n

But, prosecutors refuted his claims about Mr Gray and insisted he had murdered the man.<\/p>\n

After the verdict, advocate depute William Frain-Bell said Gallagher already had a lengthy criminal record including for violence, weapons, robbery and drugs.<\/p>\n

Lord Mulholland adjourned the case until next month when the killer will learn the minimum he will spend behind bars.<\/p>\n

The judge told him: \u201cYou have been convicted of a terrible murder.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou stabbed him straight through the heart \u2013 there was absolutely no possibility of that poor man surviving.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only that, before you stabbed him, you poured boiling water laced with sugar over him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an appalling thing to do to another human being. You also have a horrific criminal record.\u201d<\/p>\n

STV News is now on WhatsApp<\/p>\n

Get all the latest news from around the country<\/p>\n

Follow STV News <\/a>Follow STV News on WhatsApp<\/p>\n

Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country<\/p>\n

\"WhatsApp<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A killer who carried out a \u201cnapalm\u201d attack on a man has been convicted of murder. Gavin Gallagher…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7826],"tags":[748,918,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-417283","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-glasgow","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-glasgow","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115188872340936248","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}