A deli owner has admitted murdering schoolgirl Paige Doherty and dumping her body in a wooded area off the A82.

John Leathem killed the 15-year-old at his sandwich shop in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, in March before he moved her body in bin bags to the boot of his car.

At the High Court in Glasgow on Monday, the 32-year-old pleaded guilty to murdering her at Delicious Deli in Fleming Avenue, Whitecrook.

The court was played CCTV from the premises which showed Leathem removing Paige’s body in bin bags to his car, before he later dumped it in a wooded area nearby.

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In a frenzied attack, Leathem inflicted more than 150 wounds on the teenager, including 61 major stab wounds, as well as multiple defensive injuries.

The court heard Paige’s family said the post-mortem examination confirmed their “worst fears” over the “terror” she must have felt.

In a victim impact statement presented to the court, Paige’s mother Pamela Munro said she “has nightmares and wakes up hearing her daughter’s screams, with the awful realisation that she was not there to help her”.

At the hearing, his defence team said the killer’s version of events was Paige had come to his shop to ask for a job before they went into the back office where she was to give him her details.

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He claims she threatened to tell people he had “touched” her if she did not get a job at the shop.

Leathem’s defence said he then over-reacted to this by grabbing a knife and repeatedly stabbing her.

A friend she stayed with the night before said Paige had left that morning to get a roll and some change before catching the bus to her work.

She was last seen entering Delicious Deli at 8.21am and Leathem is believed to have struck by the time neighbouring shop owners noticed the shutters pulled down at 8.31am.

He was later captured on CCTV leaving the shop to buy anti-bacterial wipes, bin bags and bleach, and collect his car from his nearby home, in a bid to cover up the crime.

Leathem is understood to have stored Paige’s body in a shed at his home before dumping her body on the Monday morning prior to opening his shop.

Lady Rae was told by the prosecution: “Reviews of CCTV footage led police to believe Paige Doherty had entered the deli but had not walked away.”

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The judge described the murder as “a savage, frenzied attack on a child.”

Killer: The deli owner claimed Paige had asked for a job.

Paige’s disappearance prompted a huge police search after she failed to turn up to a part-time job at a hairdressing salon on March 19.

Her body was discovered three days later in undergrowth next to the Goals Soccer Complex off Great Western Road on March 21.

The death of Paige led to an outpouring of grief in her local town of Clydebank.

Friends and family members left tributes to her at the site where her body was found, while 600 mourners attended her funeral at St Margaret’s Catholic Church in the town where her mother Ms Munro described her as her “best friend”.

Last month, Ms Munro launched a charity in her daughter’s memory, which provides self-defence classes for children.

Paige Doherty: The schoolgirl with mother Pamela Munro.

After Leathem entered the guilty plea, detective superintendent Duncan Sloan said: “Our thoughts remain with Paige’s family, whose vibrant, bright young daughter has been cruelly taken away from them at just 15 years of age.

“Paige’s whole future lay ahead of her and her life has been brutally cut short by the vicious actions of one man.”

He added: “CCTV has been vital throughout this inquiry and officers painstakingly reviewed hours of footage which ultimately revealed that Paige walked into that shop but didn’t leave.

“This, coupled with extensive forensic examinations of the crime scenes, helped to establish what happened to Paige and who was responsible. I am sure that the sheer weight of this evidence has led to the guilty plea at court today.

“These type of incidents are very rare in Scotland and Paige’s untimely death shocked a community to its core, particularly as the man responsible was one of them.”