Furious West Lothian home owner ordered to tear down fence protecting her home<\/a><\/p>\nThe attacks took place close to Edinburgh\u2019s Omni Centre – CCTV footage shown to the jury in the trial showed locals and tourists enjoying Friday night drinks in the moments before Curran committed his crimes.<\/p>\n
The court heard evidence how the accused had taken drugs and had been drinking in the hours leading up to the attacks. Curran, of Edinburgh, was convicted on murder and attempted murder charges at the end of a two long trial last month.<\/p>\n
Sentence had been deferred for the court to obtain reports and the case called again for sentence in Edinburgh on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Judge Lady Ross heard how Curran now accepted the impact that his actions have had on dad of three Peter\u2019s family.<\/p>\n
Defence advocate John Scullion KC told Lady Ross that his client \u201cbitterly\u201d regretted his decision to carry a knife on the day of the attacks.<\/p>\n
Lady Ross told Curran that she took into account his expressions of remorse and the fact that whilst growing up he witnessed his mother being subjected to domestic abuse attacks.<\/p>\n
But she told that he had to be punished for his actions. She told him that he\u2019d have to serve at least 20 years in custody before he could be considered for release.<\/p>\n
Passing sentence, she said: \u201cYour decision to carry a knife was a desperate act of folly. A horrible series of events brought you into contact with Peter Mullen. You did not know him.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour actions have impacted on Mr Mullen\u2019s three children who have been left without a father.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo sentence which can be imposed on you today will be adequate to deal with the pain and suffering being experienced by Mr Mullen\u2019s family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Mullen was a known Hoops fan. Dozens of floral tributes and online condolences were left for the Hoops fanatic at the time including from his fiancee, dad and the Leith Celtic Supporters Club.<\/p>\n
On June 4 2023, the Leith Celtic Supporters Club made a touching online tribute to Peter.<\/p>\n
They wrote: \u201cIt is with great sadness and a heavy heart but would like us to pay tribute to a former member and user of the Leith bus who has been tragically taken from us.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeter Mullen was a loving caring happy young man who loved the Celtic and frequented the bus many times with his dad and his sister.
\u201cHe will be deeply missed by all his loving family and friends.\u2019<\/p>\n
His distraught relatives also laid floral tributes and a Celtic scarf was tied to a barrier at the scene.<\/p>\n
The court heard how the dad-of-three was rushed from the crime scene to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh but passed away a short time after the attack.<\/p>\n
During proceedings, Mr Mullen\u2019s brother Logan Sizer, 24, told jurors how his loved one told him he\u2019d been stabbed following the \u201cconfrontation\u201d with Curran.<\/p>\n
Mr Sizer said he and his sibling had spent the evening of June 2 2023 drinking in nearby pubs.<\/p>\n
Mr Sizer told the court that he and Mr Mullen were half brothers and were working on a building site in Edinburgh. They were supposed to visit family in Leeds, Yorkshire, on June 2 2023 but couldn\u2019t go due to train strikes.<\/p>\n
Mr Sizer told the court that he and Mr Mullen had been drinking in a branch of Wetherspoon\u2019s in the city\u2019s Omni Centre in the hours before the attack.<\/p>\n
The court heard how Mr Sizer has told the police of how a \u201cginger\u201d haired male who was with other people made a comment to him and Mr Mullen as they walked past each other.<\/p>\n
Mr Sizer told prosecutor David McLean that he told the male to \u201ceff off\u201d but that the group started to follow him and Mr Mullen. Mr Sizer said he and his brother turned to face the group.<\/p>\n
The witness then said a woman in the group made a \u201cbeeline\u201d towards him and she tried to \u201cclaw\u201d his face.<\/p>\n
Mr Sizer, who gave evidence via video link, said: \u201cI remember punching the woman. I turned around and Peter was on the floor telling me he had been stabbed.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe lifted his top and I saw the stab wound on his left side.<\/p>\n
\u201cI dropped to my knees, applied pressure to the wounds and rang 999.\u201d<\/p>\n
During his evidence, Mr Sizer spoke of the impact that Mr Mullen had on his life.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cHe was basically like a dad to me. He brought me up and he looked out for me. He taught me so much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Join <\/b>Edinburgh Live’s Whatsapp Community here<\/b><\/a> and get the latest news sent <\/b>straight to your messages.<\/b><\/p>\nThe court also heard evidence that he then attempted to murder Mr McFarlane. Police apprehended Curran soon after the attacks. They gathered enough evidence to bring him to court.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Mr Scullion told Lady Ross that his client suffered many \u201cadverse childhood experiences\u201d from being brought up in a \u201chighly dysfunctional family\u201d.<\/p>\n
The court heard how Curran had been diagnosed with complex PTSD. He added: \u201cHe now bitterly regrets his actions and the impact that it has had on Mr Mullen and his family.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was at a particularly low point in his life at the time of these attacks which was caused by his mother\u2019s ill health and the death of her partner. At the time of the attacks he was drinking and using drugs on a daily basis.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lady Ross also said there were grounds for \u201ccautious optimism\u201d in the sense that Curran had accepted his guilt and was making attempts to tackle his addiction issues.<\/p>\n
She also said: \u201cI would encourage you to take that seriously and to continue with these steps and to draw on all the support that will be available to you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A remorseful Edinburgh criminal who accepts he murdered a much loved dad of three on the same day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,25603,25599,1102,4884,25601,25600,25602,25598,25597,13841,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-46641","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-curran","10":"tag-dylan-curran","11":"tag-edinburgh","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-john-scullion","14":"tag-logan-sizer","15":"tag-mr-mullen","16":"tag-omni-centre","17":"tag-peter-mullen","18":"tag-royal-infirmary-of-edinburgh","19":"tag-scotland","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114393054166816426","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46641","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=46641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}