A THUG who tortured and murdered his new girlfriend weeks after being bailed to her home has been jailed for 23 years.
Scar-faced Christopher McGowan, 28, battered and strangled Claire Inglis, also 28, before forcing a wet wipe down her throat in.
Judge Michael O’Grady told McGowan at the High Court in Edinburgh his actions were "beyond sadistic" - and the mum-of-one had suffered "nothing short of torture".
He said: “It was difficult to portray the brutality of what you inflicted on her.
“You have shown not a flicker of emotion, distress or remorse.”
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Ms Inglis’ family, who attended every day of the trial, wept as McGowan’s life sentence was read out.
The judge said Ms Inglis’ family now faced “the anguish of living without her”.
McGowan was found guilty at the High Court in Stirling last month for the murder in the city in November 2021.
Judge O'Grady added: “To those who have not listened to the evidence in this trial, it is difficult to truly convey the utter brutality of the death you inflicted on Claire Inglis.
“By the time her broken and lifeless body was found, she had no fewer than 76 separate sites of injury. There is no need for me to dwell on the detail; there are those present today who have already heard too much to bear.
“The fact is, this young woman was not only murdered; she was subjected to nothing short of torture.
“I shudder to imagine what her last minutes were like. To describe what you did as sadistic falls woefully short of the mark. It was beyond sadistic.
“The consequences for Claire are self-evident. Her life is ended in pain and terror at the age of 28.
“But there are others who remain who have also been robbed of the future they could have reasonably have expected.
“Because if she was a young woman of 28, she was also a young daughter and friend of 28 and – perhaps cruellest of all – a young mother of 28.
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“Those who gave her life, and to whom she in turn gave life, will now have the anguish of living without her and the dreadful pain of knowing how she died.
“I have in particular mind the Victim Impact Statement of her young son who now spends each day lonely, bereft and bewildered, unable to make sense of why he must grow up without his mother.”
During earlier proceedings, Claire, described as a "beautiful, amazing young mum" had announced on Facebook in Autumn 2021 that she was "in a relationship" with McGowan, a painter and decorator with previous convictions for violence.
He had been released from prison , where he had been remanded on charges including dangerous driving following a high-speed police pursuit, a few weeks before the fatal attack.
Friends said Claire had been visiting him in jail.
A sheriff had given him bail after learning from a social work report , that McGowan had a "new girlfriend and that their relationship was “positive”.
The report also stated that he was "motivated to stay out of trouble and come off alcohol and Valium”. This led the Sheriff bailing him to Claire's address.
Five days before the killing, he received a community payback order, including a curfew requiring him to stay in her flat at night.
Jurors heard McGowan breached that curfew the night before her death, and was still out, intoxicated, in the company of Claire, in Stirling city centre at 9pm when he should have been indoors.
He was also subject to four other bail orders at the time and in had been jailed for 21 months in April 2020 for threatening to "do in" a cop with a six inch blade.
Four of the five bail orders that McGowan was on were granted within little more than two months of Claire's murder.
The court heard how McGowan had 40 previous convictions, including three for assault, and a conviction with a domestic aggravation dating from 2014.
The jury heard that on the day Claire died, neighbours were woken at 5am by McGowan banging on their doors.
One neighbour told the jury McGowan had said: "Waken up, I think I've killed her".
Two neighbours attempted CPR before paramedics arrived to find Claire lying "black and blue" on her bedroom floor, not breathing, with no heartbeat, and what appeared to be a baby wipe so deep in her throat they could not get an airway tube into her without removing it.
A pathologist found she had "at least" 76 separate injuries, including bleeding inside her skull, extensive injuries to her neck, two black eyes, and "petechial haemorrhaging", a tell-tale sign of strangulation.
A bone in her neck was fractured. A post mortem revealed death was due to "a combination of head and neck injuries" and subdural haemorrhage.
Speaking after the case, Claire’s parents slammed the decision to release McGowan to live at their daughter's home.
Her father Ian said: "He should never ever have been put in her flat with my grandson and Claire - not with the criminal record he had.”
Defence advocate Paul Nelson KC said his client had “less than ordeal” upbringing as a child. Mr Nelson said McGowan had been physically abused by his mother and had been the subject of “social work involvement” as a youngster.
Mr Nelson added: “Mr McGowan turned to using drink and drugs as a coping mechanism. It led to his offending. “
Members of Claire’s family said “Oh for C*****’s sake” in court as Mr Nelson was making his submission.
Passing sentence, Judge O’Grady warned McGowan that there was no guarantee that he’d be released at the end of his 23 year term.
He added: “As you know, the jury having convicted you of the crime of murder, by law there is only one sentence I can impose and that is one of life imprisonment.
“The nature of that sentence is much misunderstood and so it is perhaps appropriate for me at this stage to make clear its mechanics and consequences, so that you and others with an interest fully understand them.
“The role of the Judge in imposing a sentence of life imprisonment is limited by law to fixing what is known as the `punishment part` of the sentence.
“The punishment part which I will fix today is not to be taken as the length of the sentence which you will serve before release.
“It is no more than the fixing of the minimum period you will serve before you can apply for parole.
“It should be understood that it is not necessarily the period you will actually serve before being granted parole.
"It is commonplace for life prisoners to serve a significantly longer period than the punishment part before being granted parole.
“The issue of when – if ever you are released is not a matter for this court. It is a matter for the parole board to assess in due course whether it is safe and in the public interest that you be released at all.
Let me emphasise those words `if ever`.
"I cannot anticipate what the board will do many years hence nor bind it in any way.
“But you and others should understand that it is at least possible, depending upon its considered view, that you may never be released.”
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