Chef jailed for vicious knife attack

A young chef was jailed for life at Aberdeen High Court last week for slitting the throat of her downstairs neighbour during a petty robbery.

Pamela Gourlay, 20, who worked at RSVP bistro in Aberdeen, killed 22-year-old care worker Melanie Sturton in her bedsit in Great Western Road, Aberdeen, in October last year.

She had lodged a special defence stating her then boyfriend, Kris Taylor, 24, had committed the murder.

On Thursday 9 March, at the end of a nine-day trial, the jury rejected Gourlay's defence and found her guilty of the crime.

The jury heard how she went downstairs to where Melanie lived and, using a knife from her kitchen, stabbed her and slit her throat to rob her of a few possessions.

Judge Lord Marnoch told Gourlay, who stood expressionless in the dock: "You are an evil young woman. To put on rubber gloves, arm yourself with a knife and then burst in on a neighbour and slit her throat, all for the sake of some £20 or £30 and some personal items, is a crime of unequivocal depravity.

"It is proper despite your youth that I recommend to the Scottish Minister that you serve a minimum of 14 years detention."