A killer who stabbed his victim nearly 50 times in a “frenzied and persistent” knife attack received an unduly lenient prison sentence, the Court of Appeal has heard.
John Paul Whitla (45) is currently serving at least 15 years behind bars for murdering Nathan Gibson at an arranged meeting near lakes in Craigavon, Co Armagh in January 2020.
But counsel for the Public Prosecution Service claimed his minimum tariff should be increased because he subjected the 25-year-old victim to a planned and premeditated killing.
Frank O’Donoghue KC argued “It appears to have been a frenzied and persistent attack associated with throttling.
“The location of where it happened and the fact it was a planned meeting leads to the irresistible inference that when Mr Whitla met with the deceased it was his intention to kill him using a knife.”
The murder was carried out during a suspected drug-related encounter between the two men on a towpath near Lake Road.
Post-mortem examinations revealed Mr Gibson had been stabbed 18 times to the head and a further 31 times in the neck.
One of the knife wounds went through his eye socket into the brain, while another left the tip of the blade embedded in his skull.
Whitla left the scene covered in blood and went to Mr Gibson’s home where he managed to convince the victim’s partner to help clean him up.
He threatened and held the woman captive, at one point suggesting he had been told to carry out the murder by a local drugs gang known as ‘The Firm’.
Whitla, of no fixed abode and known by the nickname ‘Eyeball Paul’, pleaded guilty to murdering Mr Gibson as well as common assault and false imprisonment of his girlfriend.
In December last year he was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum tariff of 15 years before he can be considered for release.
Challenging that term on behalf of the PPS, Mr O’Donoghue told the Court of Appeal that the trial judge failed to fully take into account all of the circumstances surrounding the “horrific assault”.
The barrister insisted that any alleged crime gang involvement was irrelevant.
“There was clearly planning on the part of the defendant, (even if) the ‘The Firm’ was never mentioned,” he contended.
“This had a sufficient degree of premeditation to justify a higher tariff… the sentence is not just lenient, it falls into the category of undue leniency.”
Despite defence submissions about Whitla being impaired by a low IQ, the barrister added: “Simply because you have a mental disability does not mean you deserve a reduction in the tariff.”
Reserving judgment in the appeal, Lady Chief Justice Dame Siobhan Keegan said: “This is an important case and we are going to take some time to consider the outcome.”