THE MAN who murdered a Mearns farmer’s son in a frenzied knife attack has been jailed for life.

At the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday, Deryck Kerr (20) was ordered to serve a minimum of 15 years after being told he had committed a particularly cruel and ghastly crime.

The body of 27-year-old Andrew Grant Williamson was found in January in his flat in the Torry area of Aberdeen.

Last month after a six-day trial a jury unanimously found Kerr guilty of stabbing him to death at the High Court in Dundee.

It took the jury less than an hour to find him guilty of murdering Mr Williamson by repeatedly punching and kicking him, jumping and stamping on his head and body, and repeatedly stabbing him on the head and body with knives or similar instruments.

Due to the distressing nature of the evidence they had endured, trial judge Lord Menzies made it 10 years, not the usual five, before the jurors could be called again.

Mr Williamson’s family sat through the trial and were again in court yesterday to see Kerr sentenced.

Lord Menzies said, “All murders are clearly very serious but this murder was particularly horrific.

“What you did to Andrew Grant Williamson was a murder of particular cruelty and ghastliness and the marks which you made on his body, whether before or after he lost consciousness, were simply terrible.

“In these circumstances I consider that the appropriate punishment part of the sentence is 15 years.”

During the trial the court heard Kerr claim he had been provoked into the killing, and said the 27-year-old had tried to rape him.

Mr Williamson had met Kerr, who is from Aberdeen, in the street earlier in the day and invited him up to his flat in Walker Road for a drink.

However, after an argument, Kerr kicked and punched Mr Williamson before stabbing him to death.

Defence advocate Mark Strachan said Kerr had experienced a very disruptive childhood and had been in a residential school since the age of 14.

“The only explanation has to revolve round events at the residential school,” he said.

“This young man’s experiences in early life are the only way to explain the horrendous injuries in this case.

He said Kerr, a prisoner at Inverness, now “spends most of his time reflecting on his actions”.

Known as Grant, Mr Williamson was from a well-known farming family.

His father Andrew runs the farms of Alpitty and Kirkton of Arbuthnott, while his mother Isabella is also well-known in the community as manager of the Lewis Grassic Gibbon centre. She is also a long-serving member of Arbuthnott Community Council.

Mr Williamson was the middle of three children with an older brother, Ross, and sister, Alice.

A former pupil of Mearns Academy in Laurencekirk, he trained to be a hairdresser in Aberdeen, then moved to Coventry for four years before returning to the north-east.

In a statement issued by his family following Kerr’s conviction Mr Williamson was described as a gentle natured and loving, caring individual who had tragically lost his life through an act of kindness.

It said, “Grant was charismatic and full of life. He touched the hearts of all who knew him and was much loved by us all.

“This has affected our family deeply and we doubt we will ever come to terms with it. The day he was taken from us was the worst of our lives.

“He had started to make plans for his future—plans he will never be able to fulfil.

“We are pleased Kerr will be behind bars for the foreseeable future and will not be able to subject anyone else to the frightening and horrific attack he inflicted upon Grant.

“For Kerr to take Grant from us in such a mindless and brutal attack has been devastating particularly in the knowledge that he had only been released from prison on the day he killed Grant.”