MAN JAILED FOR LIFE AFTER MURDERING FATHER IN KNIFE ATTACK

Connor Manners, 27, has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Gary Nicol in Livingston, West Lothian, on 26 September 2024. Manners used a dating application to lure Nicol to meet near a primary school in the early hours of the morning. The High Court in Edinburgh heard that Manners stabbed and slashed Nicol repeatedly during the attack. Lord Renucci ordered that Manners must serve a minimum of 20 years before becoming eligible for parole consideration, whilst warning him he may never be released.

Manners and Nicol were previously unknown to each other and made contact through the dating app Grindr, the court was told. Manners had created an account posing as a teenager and arranged the meeting on Bankton Lane near Williamston Primary School. The prosecution stated that Manners went to the meeting armed with a knife and a crossbow with the intention to harm Nicol. Post-mortem evidence revealed that Nicol sustained eight wounds to his neck, including two slashes and one stab that punctured his jugular vein, alongside four stab wounds to his chest. A driver discovered Nicol's body next to his car at the roadside. Police began investigating and suspicion focused on Manners; officers attended his home on 11 October 2024.

Lord Renucci described the attack as brutal, premeditated and cowardly, carried out on an unsuspecting victim. The judge stated that any future decision regarding Manners's release will rest with the parole board. Nicol was a father of three at the time of his death.