A thief killed an 88-year-old war veteran in an underpass attack as the pensioner was out on a walk to look at daffodils.
John Gillespie, who is registered blind, tried to fend off James Duguid with his walking stick after the 51-year-old squared up to him and demanded: "Gie's your wallet".
Mr Gillespie ended up on the ground and needed surgery for a broken hip after Duguid seized the stick and began beating him with it in the fatal assault in Stirling. Six days later the pensioner died in hospital on his 64th wedding anniversary.
At the High Court in Glasgow on Friday, Duguid was jailed for seven years after previously being found guilty of culpable homicide.
The attacker had been charged with murder, but a jury found him guilty of a lesser charge.
During the trial, the court heard unemployed Duguid set upon Mr Gillespie as the elderly former Royal Navy sailor took an afternoon stroll by the riverside to enjoy the daffodils.
He pushed and pulled his victim at an underpass at the junction of Lovers Walk and Riverside in the city on April 19 last year.
Prosecution lawyer Alex Prentice QC told the court: "Mr Gillespie, a man honoured in the war, was not prepared to give up his wallet. He put up a fight."
After the sentencing, Mr Gillespie's family released a statement. It read: "Fundamentally, people old or young, have the unassailable right to walk the streets of Scotland without fear. The sentencing in this case today concerning our late father, John Gillespie, affirms that right.
"We take this opportunity to thank Central Scotland Police, the Procurator Fiscal Service and the Crown Office for all that they have done to bring this case to a conclusion and for carrying out their duties with professionalism and respect at all times for our dad and sensitivity to all our family.
"At the same time we thank our many friends for their continued support right from the first day of the attack on our Dad back in April 2011. Our family also express our gratitude to the countless members of the Stirling Community for their kindness and messages of support over the loss of our father and revered 'Son Of The Rock'."
The court heard that Duguid continues to protest his innocence over the killing.
Sentencing, Lady Scott told him: "It is clear the consequence of your conduct, in the death of Mr Gillespie, has left the Gillespie family bereft and devastated. No sentence imposed on you today can begin to compensate the Gillespie family for their loss and the sentence cannot, and is not intended to, reflect the value of the life of Mr Gillespie.
"I accept that your conduct involved a low level of actual violence but the seriousness of that violence is measured in part, by the vulnerability of your victim. And that vulnerability must have been obvious to you. The fact that this conduct took place in a context where you were attempting to rob the deceased significantly aggravates the seriousness of this offence.
"This kind of offence causes fear to all those who are elderly and frail in our society and to all those who have vulnerable parents and loved ones."
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