Deli shop owner faces life for stabbing 15-year-old Paige Doherty more than 60 times

A sandwich shop owner is to be sentenced for the "frenzied" knife murder of a teenage customer. John Leathem, 32, stabbed Paige Doherty more than 60 times when she stopped at his shop on Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, for a bread roll on the way to her hairdressing job on 19 March.

He pleaded guilty to her murder at the High Court in Glasgow in September, and will be sentenced at the same court today (12 October). At the previous hearing, Judge Lady Rae told him: "This was a savage, frenzied attack on a child."

First offender Leathem attacked the 15-year-old in the back office of the Delicious Deli in Fleming Avenue shortly after 8.20am, apparently after a short exchange about a job.

A post-mortem examination found Doherty suffered 61 stab wounds, mainly to her head and neck, and 85 cuts thought to have been sustained as she tried to fight off her attacker.

The married father-of-two was captured on CCTV carrying her body out of the shop in a bin bag and putting it in the boot of his car. Footage also showed him leaving his shop to buy antibacterial wipes, bin bags and bleach.

He is understood to have stored Doherty's body in a shed at his nearby home over the weekend before driving to a wooded area off the A82 and dumping her body on the morning of 21 March. Her body was discovered by a member of the public.

Leathem's lawyer Ian Duguid QC said her murder was a "spontaneous, gross overreaction".

He said Leathem claimed to have taken Doherty into the back office to discuss a job application, and told her he would have to speak to her mother due to her age and that there were other candidates for the position as a shop assistant.

Leathem claims Doherty responded: "I thought I was getting a job," before adding: "I'll just say you touched me," the court heard.

The teenager was described by her grandmother as a "kind and selfless person and all-round good girl". Her family said they will never get over what happened to the teenager.

The court heard how her mother Pamela Munro hears her daughter's screams in her nightmares and stepfather Andrew Munro said they could not get out of their heads "the terror that she must have experienced".