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The family of murdered Paisley dad Craig McClelland have called on the Scottish Government to launch a full public inquiry into his death.

Serial knife thug James Wright, 25, sabotaged his electronic tag and spent six months on the loose before stabbing the young father-of three to death in a Paisley street.

Craig’s grief-stricken dad Michael says reviews into the way police and prison authorities handled the case have failed to give the family the answers they so desperately crave.

PAISLEY DAILY EXPRESS: Live news as it happens

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon yesterday refused to rule out a public inquiry and insisted lessons had been learned from the tragic case.

Heartbroken Michael says the family have been left with many unanswered questions about why violent Wright was free to kill their loving son, partner and dad.

Mr McClelland told the Express: “We have sent a letter to the justice minister with around 30 points that we haven’t had answered.

“Having looked at the two reviews, we feel they have given us nothing of what we were actually looking for.

“The reviews are very generic.

“We will be pressing the justice secretary for a full public inquiry into Craig’s death because that may be the only way we are going to get to the bottom of what actually happened.

“There were an awful lot of desperate mistakes made and that has lead to one thing – my son being murdered in the street.

“We are grief-stricken, obviously, but this is just making it steadily worse because it is as if they are not willing to give us the answers.

“Somebody is not telling the truth.”

Blade fiend Wright – who had 16 previous convictions, including two for knife possession – murdered Craig in Tweed Avenue, Foxbar, while out on a home detention curfew.

He tampered with his electronic tag and was on the run for nearly six months when he committed the horrific crime, which sparked a public outcry.

(Image: Daily Record)

Reviews by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons were ordered into the case.

These identified failings in the way offenders on home detention curfews are handled.

Justice Minister Hamza Yousaf announced the government would accept the recommendations of the reports in full, including banning prisoners convicted of violence or knife crime from getting home detention.

However, the McClelland family say they still need answers and believe the only way to get these is through a public inquiry.

Michael and Craig’s partner Stacey Wilcox wrote to Mr Yousaf and called on him to have the case fully examined.

They listed a series of questions they want answered, stating: “Please put yourself in our shoes.

“To lose a dearly loved family member to violence is difficult to come to terms with.

“To know that something could and should have been done to prevent this makes it impossible.

“Our only chance of moving on from our tragedy is to learn why these mistakes were made and ensure they will never happen again.

“We owe this to Craig, and we owe this to families all over Scotland.”

Wright was jailed for minimum of 20 years by Judge Lord Matthews.

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