Man convicted of 'vicious' Coupar Angus murder
A man has been found guilty of murdering a teenager in a "vicious" knife attack and then throwing his body in a Perthshire burn.
Seventeen-year-old Robbie Thomson's body was found in Coupar Angus on 26 March 2009, just hours after he had been killed by David Barker, 25.
A jury found Barker guilty by unanimous verdict after a trial at the High Court in Dundee.
Sentence has been deferred until 22 September 2010.
The jury reached a verdict of not proven on a charge that Barker raped a 19-year-old woman on the same night.
Robbie Thomson went missing from his home in Brodie's Yard in the early hours of the morning that he died.
His body was found in the burn by a police dog and his handler.
Speaking outside court, the teenager's mother Lorraine Scofield said: ''It's hard to believe that anyone could have done this to my son. He was such a gentle boy who died in such a violent way.
"As a mother, it was my worst nightmare that came true."
Prosecutor Tom Dysart said the teenager was stabbed in a brutal attack, carried out with "disturbing ferocity" by a man he thought was his friend.
He added: "The reasons why David Barker carried out this attack may never be known.
"What is known is that he appeared to be on good terms with Robbie Thomson when they left the house together a short time before Mr Thomson's death."
Det Ch Insp Greig Steele, who led the investigation into Robbie Thomson's death added: "He was just beginning to make his own way in life, a life cruelly ended by David Barker who after the attack abandoned Robbie and left him to die.
"Only David Barker will know the reasons behind this extremely violent murder.
"He now has time inside prison to consider his actions and to think about what he has done, and the lives he has shattered."