Peter Duncan screwdriver murder: Ewan Ireland jailed for life Published duration 17 December 2019

media caption Peter Duncan screwdriver murder: Ewan Ireland caught on CCTV

A teenager who stabbed a lawyer to death with a screwdriver as he was walking home from work has been jailed for a minimum of 15 years.

Ewan Ireland was 17 when he attacked Peter Duncan, 52, at the entrance to a shopping centre in Newcastle in August.

A court heard the two brushed past each other when the teenager pulled out a screwdriver he had shoplifted and stabbed Mr Duncan in the heart.

Ireland admitted murder and was jailed for life with a minimum of 15 years.

The killer, who was able to be identified after he turned 18 in October, had 17 previous convictions for 31 offences between 2017 and 2019.

At the time of the murder he was on bail for an offence of affray, was under investigation for a robbery and still subject to a 12-month conditional discharge for a battery offence the previous summer.

In a victim impact statement read out at Newcastle Crown Court, Mr Duncan's widow Maria said her life "was ruined by a senseless and unprovoked act".

"The person who did this had convictions. Nothing stopped him. He continued and he murdered my husband," she said.

image copyright Family photo image caption Peter Duncan's family described him as a "devoted father and husband"

Mr Duncan came into contact with Ireland at the entrance to Eldon Square shopping centre when they were walking in opposite directions.

The court heard the teenager was looking for another youth with whom he had previously argued about cigarettes.

Mr Duncan, who was an in-house lawyer for an international maritime firm, raised his arm to let Ireland past, but "the defendant took exception to that" and a struggle ensued, prosecutor Kevin Wardlaw said.

After pushing him off, Mr Duncan was stabbed once through the heart and collapsed a short distance away near a Greggs outlet.

'Needless and senseless'

The court heard Mr Duncan's 15-year-old son was in the city centre that evening for a cinema trip and saw the cordoned off area without realising his father had been attacked.

"I am angry he was out free, and cannot understand why he was not locked up," he said in a victim impact statement.

"If he had been we would still have my dad to this day."

image copyright Northumbria Police image caption Ewan Ireland had a string of convictions when he murdered Mr Duncan

During sentencing, Mr Justice Lavender said it was Mr Duncan's "bad luck to bump into you that day on his way home from work".

"You started a fight, in the course of which you took out a screwdriver and stabbed him through the heart," he said.

The judge said Ireland's offending started at the age of 14, with a string of convictions including theft, battery and making threats with knives.

"All too often, young men like you, who get into the habit of carrying weapons and using them to threaten others, move on to using those weapons to harm others, as you have done," he added.

Ireland also admitted stealing screwdrivers and carrying an offensive weapon.

Caroline Goodwin QC, defending, said the teenager "had spoken of his absolute remorse and devastation at the act he occasioned which was needless and senseless and took away from the family their father".

image caption The court heard Mr Duncan had been in the wrong place at the wrong time

Det Ch Insp Jane Fairlamb said Ireland had been a promising young footballer who had been offered a lot of help to change his criminal behaviour.

"I think one of the most shocking elements of this crime is that it was in such a public place in a major shopping centre in our city and we probably all had that feeling that it could have been any one of us walking home from work," she said.

"With every contact that Ewan Ireland has had with the police and criminal justice system he gets opportunities to change his behaviour - support from different agencies to change that life of crime - he's had those opportunities."

She also said Mr Duncan's family was devastated by the loss and she did not have the words to express how deeply they were grieving.