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

Ewan Ireland was just 17 when he attacked 52-year-old Peter Duncan at the entrance to Newcastle's Eldon Square shopping centre in August.

The two had merely brushed past each other when the youth pulled out the screwdriver he had just shoplifted and stabbed the devoted father once in the heart.

Mr Duncan, who was an in-house lawyer for an international maritime firm, managed to walk a few yards further before collapsing close to a Greggs outlet.

Ireland admitted murder at a previous hearing and was sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court on Tuesday.


The media was able to publish his identity once he turned 18 in October.

Ahead of sentencing, Mr Duncan's widow pleaded with the judge not to let Ireland "devastate any more families".

Following Ireland's guilty plea, it emerged that he was a serial offender who continued to commit violent crimes despite being on bail.

At the time of the killing 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.

Image: Ewan Ireland was jailed at Newcastle Crown Court on Tuesday

Newcastle Crown Court heard he had appeared in court on 17 occasions and has 31 criminal offences on his record.

Prosecutor Richard Wright QC said psychiatric assessments on Ireland - a one-time Newcastle United hopeful - deemed him a "dangerous offender".

In a victim impact statement, Mr Duncan's widow Maria said: "The person who did this had convictions.

"Nothing stopped him. He continued and he murdered my husband.

"Please do not allow him to devastate any more families. He is a danger to all of us."

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 much-loved father had been attacked.

In a victim statement, he said: "At the time he (Ireland) had been released under investigation in relation to another incident in which a weapon was used.

"I am angry he was out free, and cannot understand why he was not locked up.

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

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

The judge added that Ireland's offending started at the age of 14, with previous offences including theft, battery, public order and making threats with knives.

Mr Justice Lavender said: "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."

A psychiatrist for the defence reported that Ireland had "severe autism spectrum disorder and intermittent explosive disorder" - the second of which means he was unable to control "impulsive or anger-based aggressive outbursts", the judge said.

Meanwhile, the prosecution psychiatrist said Ireland had "traits of autism spectrum disorder" and "conduct disorder" - symptoms of which include "excessive levels of fighting".

The judge said: "On either view, you are clearly someone who finds it difficult to control your temper and to refrain from violence."