Family and friends of a tragic young Burntisland father marched outside the Scottish Parliament in a call for action on knife crime.
Barry McLean’s parents, Alan and Tina, were joined by around 100 supporters, including relatives of other victims of stabbings, in a parade on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile.
Alan, wearing a T-shirt that read Justice for Barry, fought back tears as he addressed the crowd at Holyrood.
He said: ”We must join together and unite against knife crime.
”Every one of us here has suffered so much, lost so much and we all ask for so little in return.
”We need our peers to listen to what we are saying to make Scotland safer.
”Let’s make our streets safer and remember, most of all, we need to protect our children and our children’s children.”
Barry (27) died after he was stabbed by Sean Kitchener in May last year.
The electrician, whose son Connor was only seven months old at the time, had gone to Kitchener’s flat in Burntisland after Kitchener had fought with his brother Craig in a pub.
Kitchener admitted ”poking” Barry with a kitchen knife but his plea of self-defence was accepted by a jury at the High Court in Edinburgh and he walked free.
The march was the second held in Barry’s memory.
Around 220 people paraded in Kirkcaldy in October, waving banners with the slogan ”Ditch the knife, cherish life”.
Barry’s family are also fighting for a review of the trial, claiming jurors failed to properly assess the evidence.
They said an increase in the maximum jail sentence for carrying a knife from four to five years, announced recently by justice secretary Kenny McAskill, was not enough and want to see a minimum of 25 years for knife killers, mandatory prison sentences and clearer directions from judges to jurors.
Supporting the McLeans was John Muir, who has campaigned since his son Damien (34) was stabbed to death by a stranger in Greenock in July 2007.
He said: ”Knife crime is a carnage to Scotland.
”We want to change the face of the justice system by making it stronger.
”If someone is sentenced to a number of years, they should do that number of years in prison.”
”We also want a victims’ commissioner and further consideration of a minimum tariff of 25 years for knife murder, like England and Wales have.”
A Christmas candle walk is to be held in Barry’s memory in Burntisland on December 21, starting at the Burntisland Sands Hotel at 7pm and ending at the cemetery.