Man who claimed victim fell down stairs convicted of killing him

A man who claimed his victim suffered a fatal fall has been convicted of killing him.

Alexander Walker, 33, attacked his friend James Curran in the stairwell of flats in Tradeston, Glasgow in March last year.

Walker - who had a history of violence - had claimed that Mr Curran had fallen down two flights of stairs.

But after stranding trial for murder, a jury found him guilty of the lesser charge of culpable homicide.

He will be sentenced next month.

The High Court in Glasgow heard that Mr Curran - known as Jimmy - suffered severe internal injuries having been kicked or stamped upon.

Paramedic John Shea told the trial he was called to the flats in the city's Wallace Street and found Mr Curran in "a bad way".

The 38-year-old did not survive and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Walker was also still there and he claimed the 38-year-old had "fallen two flights of stairs".

Mr Shea told jurors: "When I told him (Walker) his friend had gone, he seemed heartbroken.

"There were tears, crying in anguish...shouting his name 'Jimmy, Jimmy'."

But Walker had fled by the time police arrived instead meeting a friend in the city centre.

In his closing speech, prosecutor Greg Farrell told jurors: "Walker did not seem upset or distressed when he spoke to (the friend) not long after he had left Wallace Street."

He was later quizzed by police at the place he had been living at in Easterhouse, Glasgow.

Included in his statement were claims Mr Curran had taken drugs that day, fell down stairs at the flats, got up before taking another "tumble" and ending up unresponsive.

Mr Farrell said "accidents do happen", but that pathology evidence deemed it not "plausible" a fall would have caused that.

It emerged after the verdict Walker had a string of convictions including for serious assault in 2011.

Judge John Morris QC remanded him in custody and deferred sentencing for reports.