Febuary 2006 Moray sex ‘beast’ gets life for brutal murder A Moray sex attacker who murdered a drinking companion who discovered his criminal past was yesterday jailed for life. David Norris, 20, was fuelled by alcohol and drugs when he subjected his victim to a barrage of punches and kicks to his head and body. John Menzies died after his attacker stamped on his head and bashed it against a wall and the floor at Waterloo Place, Inverness, on June 28, 2005. Norris was found guilty of the murder at the High Court in Inverness earlier this month. And at the High Court in Aberdeen yesterday, Lord Menzies ordered him to serve at least 12 years behind bars. The jury in the five-day trial were warned that police forensic photographs of the aftermath of the attack could distress them. Norris told the court his victim had called him a “beast” and a “paedophile” after discovering he had sexually assaulted an eight-year-old girl. When Norris was 16, he groped and molested a girl he was babysitting. She awoke in a bed in a house in Elgin in May 2002 to find him half-naked beside her. He assaulted her, left the room, then returned to continue. At the High Court in Edinburgh in December 2003, Lord Abernethy ordered Norris to attend a sex offenders’ programme and counselling for his drink and drug abuse. The mother of his young victim condemned the sentence but the Court of Appeal supported the original decision to place Norris on probation for three years. Last night the girl’s parents said it had come as no surprise that he turned into a killer. “If he was capable of doing what he did to our daughter he was capable of anything,” the girl’s mother said. Norris would not have been at liberty to murder Mr Menzies if he had been given a jail sentence for the sex offence, the woman added. “We are left with the feeling that we still have not had justice for what happened to our daughter,” she said. “Norris’s attitude seems to have been, ‘If I have got away with what I did to that young girl, I can get away with anything’.” Defence advocate Jock Thomson, QC, yesterday described the murder case as an “extremely sad and tragic affair”. He said: “Norris had been convicted of a sexual offence in the High Court in Edinburgh and, as a result, found he could not stay in Elgin or Forres and moved to Inverness. “During a brief period, his background wasn’t known publicly. He settled down to the happiest period of his young life. “He managed to get a job, accommodation and friends and had a relationship with a girl. “That all came to an end when the Crown appealed against the sentence, which they felt had been too lenient. That appeal achieved nothing other than publicity.” He admitted the attack on Mr Menzies was a very extreme act of violence but said it was not premeditated and Norris had “expressed his genuine remorse and regret”. Lord Menzies told Norris: “There are some factors which I consider to be broadly mitigating in your case and, in particular, I’m prepared to accept that this was not a premeditated murder but arose as a result of your loss of control. It is, in my view, a classic example of murder showing wicked recklessness – not caring whether your victim lives or dies.” The judge said he had also considered the provocation, the lack of weapon and the “regret and remorse” Norris expressed, but had to balance this against his previous record and the “appalling degree of violence” used in the attack. He ordered Norris to be detained for life, with a punishment element of 12 years backdated to July 1, 2005