Man who murdered partner after football match jailed for 19 years

John Higgins admitted killing Amanda McAlear at a flat in Glasgow

A delivery driver who admitted murdering his partner after returning home from a football match has been jailed for 19 years.

John Higgins, 63, attacked Amanda McAlear at her flat in the Barmulloch area of Glasgow on 7 May 2022.

The 50-year-old's body was found by her son when he visited her home the next day.

Judge Lady Haldane reduced the minimum term of Higgins' life sentence from 20 years due to his guilty plea.

Lady Haldane told the High Court in Glasgow she had read a number of emotional victim impact statements from Ms McAlear's family describing how she is "evidently irreplaceable".

The court previously heard Higgins had attended a match and gone to a pub before getting a taxi to Ms McAlear’s flat.

The exact details of the attack are unknown, but prosecutors stated he grabbed her and repeatedly punched her in the head and body before strangling her.

Amanda McAlear was discovered by her son and pronounced dead at the scene

Ms McAlear's "badly injured" body was discovered by her son. He called 999 but his mother was pronounced dead when paramedics arrived.

Higgins did not make any mention of Ms McAlear being hurt when he visited his sister. Istead, the court heard he said he had a "fight" with Ms McAlear after she unplugged the TV as he was watching it.

He went to a police station the following day with a lawyer and was charged in connection with the killing.

'Deplorable conduct'

The court heard Ms McAlear had a "close and loving relationship with her family," but her death meant she missed the birth of her youngest grandchild.

During sentencing, Lady Haldane said: "To lose her at all is a tragedy, but to lose her in the manner she did, having murderous violence inflicted upon her by someone who was her partner, is, I am sure, unbearable for them."

She remarked on the "very limited insight and remorse" Higgins had shown in the compiling of a pre-sentencing report.

The judge continued: "You seemed to have focused more on Miss McAlear's actions which you suggest, on your account, were provocative rather than the numerous opportunities to pull back from what was a murderous assault.

"You left the property without knowing if Miss McAlear was alive or dead.

"This conduct is deplorable. A direct consequence of this is that her son had the unimaginable experience of discovering his deceased mother."