Mother of Shaun Woodburn brands killer's sentence '˜an insult to her family'
Denise Syme spoke out after the 17-year-old, who cannot be named, was sentenced for the culpable homicide of talented footballer Shaun during a New Year street fight.
The thug was still a schoolboy when he joined a gang on a violent Hogmanay rampage across the Capital, culminating in young dad Shaun’s death in Leith.
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Hide Ad“I feel numb – four years is not enough,” Denise told the Evening News. “It’s an insult to my family and all of the other victims too.
“What kind of message are we sending to young people if you can kill someone and only get a four-year sentence?
“I’m glad it’s over as now I can forget how Shaun died and remember how he lived.” And she later added on Facebook: “Gutted...what message are we giving to society if you can assault five people and kill another and get four years.
“No sentence was going to be long enough and I can’t bear to think that my lovely son’s life was taken and he will probably be out in two years – it’s an insult.”
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Hide AdThe teenager denied causing Shaun’s death, but admitted assaulting five other people in Edinburgh that night.
He was sentenced at Glasgow High Court after being found guilty at an earlier trial in Dunfermline of Shaun’s culpable homicide. He was tried for murder.
The teen felled Shaun with a single punch outside Gladstones bar where the popular dad-of-one had been partying with friend and Hibs star Danny Swanson.
He struck despite it emerging he had come to police “attention” between 2014 and 2016 before taking part in “offence focused work”. He had also been kicked out of his school months before the attack.
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Hide AdLady Stacey described this “history” of behaviour as “worrying”.
The judge told him: “Shaun Woodburn’s family will never be the same again – perhaps most poignantly a young daughter who has been deprived of her father.
“You have to live the rest of your life with the knowledge of this young man’s death.”
The teenager will also be supervised for a further 18 months after his release.
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Hide AdDerek Ogg QC, defending, said the killer had shown “undoubted remorse” for his conduct.
The court heard the teen thug had been a “mentor” to other young prisoners while on remand.
Co-accused Mohammed Zakariyah, 19, was yesterday ordered to carry out 240 hours of unpaid work. He had pled guilty to two assaults and a breach of the peace in connection with that night.
Shaun’s furious dad Kevin Woodburn demanded an explanation from the judge. “I publicly ask Lady Stacey to meet with me and my family to justify this disgraceful sentence,”