Latest news with #LewisMcCartney
The National
27-05-2025
- Politics
- The National
Shona Craven: Young people have the right to feel disillusioned
'Call for more police powers to tackle rise in knife crime' was The Scotsman's line. Reports of these calls by the Scottish Conservatives coincided with the sentencing of a 21-year-old man for murdering 18-year-old Lewis McCartney with a knife in Edinburgh, and came days after Kayden Moy, aged just 16, was stabbed to death in Irvine. The general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation says officers need more stop-and-search powers. Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay says the SNP have been 'weak and reckless' in their approach to youth justice. The evidence, however, supports the Scottish Government's decision to take a public health approach to violence prevention. READ MORE: Jonathon Shafi: Angela Rayner is well aware that Israel has broken international law There are no quick-fix solutions here. The question of why a young person would even think about carrying a knife – let alone using one – goes far beyond police procedure, or sentencing guidelines. We know by now that risk factors for youth violence include poverty, addiction and social isolation, plus broader societal factors such as high levels of unemployment and societal inequality. In other words, politicians must look at the bigger picture. Unfortunately, that isn't looking very positive right now for under-25s in the UK. Hundreds of thousands of young people are struggling to find jobs and an even greater number are 'economically inactive', meaning they can't work, have given up trying or never even started, going directly from school to living off benefits and essentially admitting defeat. It's a miserable situation that's projected to get much worse. But it's hard to blame these youngsters for feeling disillusioned. A youth adviser who addressed the House of Lords last month was met with gasps after he reported that there were 'kids on the internet 24 hours a day, and they don't want to work for anything less than 40 grand'. He said there was a need to 'imbue them with a sense of 'you need to put a shift in, to get what you want in life'.' But what do these youngsters want out of life, and is it realistic for them to believe that with hard work they'll be able to achieve it? It's easy to dismiss them as coddled and delusional, but perhaps they're actually just numerate. If they're looking at rents, mortgage rates, energy bills and supermarket prices, they may conclude that even if they graft for 37.5 hours a week there won't be an awful lot left after they cover their essentials, especially if those include a car and fuel, or rail travel to a workplace. Their parents and grandparents may grumble that it has been ever thus, and these young people just need to buck up their ideas, but the job landscape is fundamentally different to when they entered the workforce. Past generations were willing to endure entry-level wages, flat shares and beans on toast for a spell, safe in the knowledge they would be able to climb a career ladder and improve their position. So fast-changing is the current technological landscape that young people who 'put a shift in' might end up sliding down a snake instead, finding themselves replaced by a chatbot or an AI agent. READ MORE: Ellie Gomersall: Be in no doubt. Reform UK are a real and present danger Maybe during the '24 hours a day' they apparently spend on the internet they are reading or hearing about the scale of in-work poverty – that's if they aren't experiencing it first-hand in their own family homes, with parents working multiple jobs but still drowning in debt. The results of the latest Consumer Scotland Energy Tracker were published last week, with 15% of survey respondents reporting they were in energy debt or arrears (up from 9% last year) and a third saying they were unable to heat their homes to a comfortable level due to the cost. Young people are living in these cold homes. It seems unlikely that a well-timed motivational lecture will convince them that hard work is guaranteed to get you what you want out of life. Of course, if you don't even try you will end up stuck, but tragically it seems many view that as a safer option – or their only option. Responding to the £40k-a-year revelation, the Daily Mail's headline referred to 'internet-obsessed and job-shy Gen Z'. There's a huge abdication of responsibility there – especially from a title whose website was a gateway drug for those vulnerable to what we now call 'doom-scrolling'. Is it fair to chide digital natives for not having the self-restraint to put down their smartphones when their own parents are glued to the damned things? It seems the best the Prime Minister has to offer is a European youth mobility scheme – in other words, an escape route out of the country. The news that he is planning (probably, maybe) to scrap the two-child benefit cap (at some point, if he can find the money) won't do much to lift the sense of despair about the kind of future the broken UK political system is storing up for young people who have every right to feel demoralised.
Daily Mail
26-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Jailed for life, killer who stabbed teenager and hid knife at Holyrood Palace
A thug who killed a teenager and hid the murder weapon on the grounds of the King's home in Edinburgh has been jailed for life. Because of his age, Bailey Dowling was locked up for a minimum of 15 years before he is eligible for parole after murdering Lewis McCartney,18, in a street attack two years ago. A judge told the 21-year-old at the High Court in Edinburgh that his victim had 'everything to live for' and his loss was devastating for family and friends. He told Dowling: 'It is clear you came to Edinburgh for what you hoped would be an enjoyable time and so it would have been but for the decisions you made.' The killer, who was 19 at the time, had come to Scotland to visit a friend. But he armed himself with a knife before he left a flat to meet a group, which included Mr McCartney, and stabbed his victim in the back. Lord Matthews said: 'Taking a knife into the street is never acceptable.' He told Dowling that the 15-year punishment part of the life sentence imposed on him was shorter than it would have been had he reached the age of 25. Following the murder in February 2023, the Londoner abandoned the blade in the grounds of Holyrood Palace before fleeing Edinburgh. But once back at home in the London, he handed himself in to police. At an earlier trial he denied murdering his victim by striking him on the body with the knife and claimed he acted in self-defence after he was struck with a bottle. However, he was convicted of murder and a further charge of unlawful possession of an offensive weapon last month. Following the verdict advocate depute Alex Prentice KC said a statement was prepared by the victim's family to indicate the depth of feeling and strong, continuing sense of loss as a result of his death. The court heard that Dowling, had travelled north of the Border to meet up with a friend and they later joined a woman at her flat in the Dumbiedykes area of Edinburgh where ketamine was taken. Mr McCartney arrived at the flat with others although they later left. When they returned Dowling went through to the kitchen and got a large knife before going outside to meet them. Efforts were made to persuade him to leave the weapon but he said: 'I am not going downstairs without it. They just said they robbed somebody.' He was later told there was no robbery. Dowling claimed that he did not intend to harm the victim but was trying to get away after he was struck on the head with a bottle by another member of the group. He said: 'I was dazed and confused after I was hit and then I took out the knife.' And he disputed other evidence that he had the knife in his hand before he was struck with the bottle. Francesca Palma, 21, who was staying at the flat told police that when Dowling returned to her home he looked panicked and told officers: 'The London guy said, 'I just stabbed that Lewis'.' He had a knife with blood on it and was told to leave. Dowling disposed of the knife in the palace grounds before catching a bus to Glasgow and travelling to London Euston train station. He went to his mother's home before surrendering to police in London. Dowling's defence counsel Mark Stewart KC said he was a first offender and told the court: 'He did not intend to stab anybody. He accepts the verdict of the jury. He does not agree with the verdict of the jury.' A co-accused labourer Benjamin Wilson, 21, from Burntisland, in Fife, was convicted of assaulting Dowling by striking him on the head with a bottle to his injury on February 12 , 2023 during the incident. He was ordered to carry out 200 hours unpaid work under a two-year community payback order.
BBC News
26-05-2025
- BBC News
Man jailed for life for murdering teenager in Edinburgh
A man who stabbed a teenager to death in Edinburgh before hiding the knife in the grounds of Holyrood Palace has been jailed for life. Bailey Dowling, 21, killed 18-year-old Lewis McCartney in the Dumbiedykes area on in February 2023. He was sentenced to at least 15 years in prison at the High Court in had denied murdering Mr McCartney and claimed he acted in self defence after he was struck with a bottle. He armed himself with a large kitchen knife before meeting the victim and his friends in Dumbiedykes. Violence then erupted, the court heard, during which Dowling was struck on the head before he stabbed Mr McCartney in the back. He claimed he was "dazed and confused" during the incident and did not intend to harm the court also heard Dowling hid the knife on the grounds of Holyrood Palace, the official residence of the King when he is in then left Edinburgh for his home in London, where he later handed himself in to Wilson, 20, was given a two-year community payback order after being convicted of assaulting Dowling by hitting him on the head with a bottle in the same incident. Judge Lord Matthews told Dowling that his victim had "everything to live for" and that his loss was devastating for family and told the court: "It is clear you came to Edinburgh for what you hoped would be an enjoyable time and so it would have been but for the decisions you made."The judge added: "Taking a knife into the street is never acceptable."
