Family says killer's sentence too short
Relatives of a motorcycle champion who was battered to death hit out today after his killer was told he must serve at least 10 years in jail.
Paul Baird, 23, repeatedly stabbed and stamped on Jim Silver in a rage when he found him with his mother at her home in Co Antrim, Northern Ireland.
Even though the salesman admitted murdering the racing ace and expressed deep remorse, the victim’s family were outraged by the minimum term set on his life sentence.
As they left Belfast Crown Court Mr Silver’s sister, Mary McLeod, said: “I don’t think he should be released. It’s just not long enough.”
Baird, from Beechgrove, Lisburn, Co Antrim, had become “unusually close” to his mother, Wilma, as she struggled to cope with the break-up of a long-term relationship.
He launched a savage assault following a night out in June 2002, when he mistakenly suspected Mr Silver was taking advantage of her. He had arrived at the house to find Mrs Baird wearing only a nightdress and jumped to the wrong conclusion.
Defence counsel Jim Gallagher QC told the court: “Once he got the notion into his head that the deceased represented some sort of threat to the security of the house and his mother’s happiness, he seems to have gone into some sort of frenzy and he was slow to recover from it.
“He just has a memory of not being able to stop.”
Baird sat head bowed and sobbing throughout the hearing.
As members of the murdered man’s family, who had travelled from Scotland, listened to the horrific account of what happened, one of Mr Silver’s brothers collapsed and had to be taken outside for medical treatment.
