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A THUG who fathered 17 kids by 15 mums has been convicted of knifing a young dad of four to death.

Murderer Jamie Cumming, 36, repeatedly plunged his blade into 29-year-old James Getty’s chest after a petty row in a pub.

He later told one of his many girlfriends he did it because he’d been “in a mood”.

James staggered back in shock, blood gushing from three gaping wounds. He suffered damage to his heart, lungs and liver and died within hours.

Cumming has never shown any remorse for the murder but was full of self-pity after his arrest.

He told officers: “I’ve thrown my life away.”

Cumming was exposed as Britain’s worst deadbeat dad in 2011 after his own mother revealed he was a serial love rat. He bragged at the time: “It’s OK for me to do what I’ve done because I’m a man.”

He already had 19 convictions, including one for assault, when he murdered James at a 50th birthday party in Dundee last June.

Cumming first attacked James in the toilets of the Maltman Bar in Mains Road, not far from Dens Park and Tannadice. James was bleeding from a wound above his eye when he came out.

The fight then spilled on to nearby Mid Road, where James Kelbie, who was hosting the birthday party, tried to separate Cumming and his victim.

But Cumming then struck James repeatedly in the chest with what witnesses described as a stabbing motion.

James managed to stagger back into Mains Road, but then collapsed. James Kelbie put pressure on his chest to try to stop the blood.

An ambulance took James to Ninewells Hospital but he died about 90 minutes later.

A post mortem revealed his wounds were so severe that doctors might not have been able to save him if he had been stabbed in the hospital car park.

Cumming fled after the murder and got into a taxi.

In the minutes that followed, he sent a string of texts to his then girlfriend and former lovers.

He told Chelsea Anderson, 21, the mother of his 16th child: “It wisnae for nothing. I was in a mood and he was being a p***k.”

In another text to a different woman, he admitted he had “done someone”.

After leaving the scene, Cumming went to meet Dundee underworld figure George Kerr, who has been linked in the past to Glasgow gangster Paul Ferris.

Kerr told the court he burned Cumming’s blood- spattered T-shirt, then drove him around the city with a boa constrictor around his neck. It’s believed the snake belonged to Kerr.

Cumming was arrested next day, June 2. Police found him in his grandad’s car with his bloodied clothes and shoes in a bag.

As officers took him to the station, he said he had thrown his life away.

Tests revealed that Cumming had James’s blood inside the pockets of his jeans and inside his shirt.

But despite the forensic evidence and the eyewitnesses to his crime,he denied his guilt and tried to pin the blame for the stabbing on James Kelbie.

The trial at the High Court in Dundee lasted nine days. The jury of eight men and seven women took only two hours to convict Cumming by majority.

The 6ft 4in thug, with tattoos on his hands and neck, showed no emotion at the verdict.

Cumming, a prisoner at Perth, will be jailed for life on April 3 at the High Court in Edinburgh. Judge Lady Clark of Calton said she would study a pre-sentence report before setting his minimum term.

The killer bowed his head as guards took him to the cells. His family said nothing as they left court, and relatives of his victim also made no comment.

Cumming fathered his first child in 1995 and his 17th early last year.

He was slated in the press in 2011 when mum Lorraine exposed his behaviour, but he seemed to find it funny.

Cumming said at the time: “One instruction from the Bible I’d remind people of before they judge me is, ‘Go forth and multiply.’

“I’ve sat in loads of bars over the years and heard people moaning about the population falling in Dundee. I’ve been doing my best to repopulate the town.

“I’ve done my bit, but I know that on Judgment Day, I might pay for my sins.”

Cumming added: “Contraception is a two-way thing. If women are going to have sex with me and don’t want a baby, why don’t they take the Pill?

“I’m a big boy, 6ft 4in, well-built and I’m in proportion. I know they’re supposed to make condoms for larger men these days, but I’ve not found one yet.

“All these women have been happy to have my babies. Maybe some of them thought I was a good catch.

“I never promised them anything.

“I know you’re not supposed to say it these days, but in my mind, it’s OK for me to do what I’ve done because I’m a man.

“When a woman has loads of children by different men, it’s much worse.”

