Man sentenced to 22 years in prison for murder of Maxine Clark
It emerged he already had abuse convictions in connection with former partners.
Keel was today jailed for life having earlier pleaded guilty to a murder at the High Court in Glasgow.
Sentencing, Lord Mulholland went through the catalogue of horrific injuries he inflicted on Maxine including brain damage, significant bruising, fractures and wounds.
Mark Keel was jailed for life having earlier pleaded guilty to a murder at the High Court in Glasgow. (Image: PA) Lord Mulholland told him: "What you did was cowardly, evil and the actions of a brute."
He warned Keel - who showed no emotion - that he may never been freed.
Prior to the relationship with Maxine, the court was earlier told how Keel had previously been made the subject of strict non-harassment orders banning him from approaching or contacting three former partners.
This also included him being jailed in June 2022 for domestic violence.
In 2023, he was also told to attend the Caledonian System - a project for men guilty of such abuse - with Keel being deemed "a high risk offender".
But, his attendance was described as "sporadic".
He also went on to flout a court-imposed community payback order.
In January 2024, Keel was instead put on 12-months supervision as well as an 18-week curfew.
At the time of the killing, Keel and mum-of-four Maxine had been in a relationship for 18 months.
He had recently moved into her home in Riddrie.
READ MORE:
Maxine had once been described as "healthy, happy and outgoing".
However, she had told others of physical violence being inflicted on her by Keel.
Maxine had been seen with black eyes as well an injury to her jaw. She also had "grab marks" around her neck.
Maxine admitted to a neighbour Keel had punched her.
However, she was scared to report the thug in fear of repercussions.
Prosecutor David Dickson said: "Family and friends warned her they felt Keel posed a threat to her."
In the hours before the murder, Keel called his own mum asking to get picked up claiming he was "leaving" Maxine.
They went to his father's home in the southside of Glasgow before he later got a taxi back to Maxine's house.
He was described as "drunk". Maxine was in bed when he got there.
Mr Dickson said it was at the property the fatal attack then occurred.
A child also staying at the house got up the next morning to find Maxine still in the bed with Keel wrapped in a blanket sitting beside her.
Mr Dickson: "She appeared to have fresh injuries to her face and her breathing was described as laboured."
Maxine was rolled onto her side. The child left to play with friends, but returned every hour to see how she was.
Advocate depute Mr Dickson told the court: "Keel said he thought she was having an allergic reaction and that there was no need to call an ambulance."
At around 6pm, G4S security staff arrived to fit an electronic tag on Keel due to the curfew imposed on him weeks earlier.
But, he steered them away claiming he had just woken up.
Keel instead went on to dial 999 claiming Maxine's tongue was swollen and that he had not seen her awake that day.
Mercy crews arrived to find her still lying on the blood-stained bed partially covered with a duvet.
It was found she was sadly already dead.
Mr Dickson said Maxine had 51 separate injuries likely caused by punches, kicks and being stamped upon.
The imprint of the soles Keel's shoes were found on her leg such was the force.
Maxine was the only child of her grieving parents Joseph and Mary Clark.
The court heard today that Keel had been a promising footballer in his teens before getting in with the "wrong crowd".
Around 2014, he then suffered the death of his baby son from illness.
Brian McConnachie KC, defending, said: "It appears, from this point onwards, there was a pattern of offending and offending of a particular nature."
The advocate added the killing of Maxine occurred on the anniversary of the child's passing.
Mr McConnachie stated that was not put forward as an "excuse" for what then happened, but he said: "Undoubtedly, due to the timing of the event, Mark Keel's mood was a particularly bad one on that day."
Keel was now "deeply ashamed and remorseful" for what he did.
Lord Mulholland cut the minimum jail-term from 24 years due to the guilty plea.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
16 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Taxpayer could face £1bn compensation bill for Afghan leak victims
Afghans secretly relocated to the UK after a data breach are suing the Government in a compensation case that threatens to cost taxpayers almost £1 billion. A vast data breach involving the details of 18,800 soldiers, along with about 6,000 of their family members, was revealed on Tuesday after a superinjunction was lifted by the High Court, allowing The Telegraph and other national newspapers to expose the scandal. It can now be revealed that a law firm is suing the Ministry of Defence (MoD) on behalf of at least 1,000 Afghans who claim they were affected by the breach. Manchester-based Barings Law hopes to claim £50,000 from the MoD for each individual involved in the breach, sources have said. If all 18,800 soldiers make a successful claim, the compensation bill could be as high as £940 million. That sum could grow if any of the Afghan soldiers' family members join the legal claim, taking it towards £1 billion in total. Hidden from the public The breach occurred in February 2022, when a Royal Marine emailed a group of Afghans, accidentally including a spreadsheet containing the identities of nearly 25,000 Afghans – soldiers who had worked with the British Army, as well as their family members – who were applying for asylum. The leak came to light in 2023, when an anonymous Facebook user posted extracts of the data on the social media site. MoD officials contacted Meta, the company that owns Facebook, and the posts were deleted within three days. However, the Government decided it had no choice but to offer asylum to the Afghans affected because the leak had left them at risk of reprisal attacks from the Taliban. The breach has only just come to public attention after an unprecedented superinjunction was lifted by the High Court. Adnan Malik, head of data protection at Barings Law, said: 'This is an incredibly serious data breach, which the Ministry of Defence has repeatedly tried to hide from the British public. 'It involved the loss of personal and identifying information about Afghan nationals who have helped British forces to defeat terrorism and support security and stability in the region. 'Through its careless handling of such sensitive information, the Ministry of Defence has put multiple lives at risk, damaged its own reputation, and put the success of future operations in jeopardy by eroding trust in its data security measures.' To date, the leak is understood to have cost £400 million to relocate victims of the leak. A further £850 million has been set aside to complete the resettlement of those affected, but it is not believed that this includes any potential compensation costs. The MoD was fined £350,000 for a very similar – but separate – data breach in 2023 that came to public light. The details of 265 Afghans were accidentally leaked two years before, in 2021, after an email was sent copying in a list of addresses in the 'to' field of the message rather than the 'bcc' field, which hides other recipients. Regulators from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) handed down the penalty in December 2023. Court papers seen by The Telegraph indicate that the ICO was made aware of the far larger Afghan data breach in 2023, but were sworn to secrecy.
Daily Mail
25 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Joey Barton to pay more than £200k of Jeremy Vine's legal fees in libel case after calling BBC and Channel 5 star a 'big bike nonce' and a 'pedo defender'
Former footballer Joey Barton will pay more than £200,000 of Jeremy Vine 's legal costs for a High Court libel battle after the pundit labelled the cyclist a 'big bike nonce' and a 'pedo defender', a court has heard. Vine sued Barton for libel and harassment over several online posts, including one in which he falsely called the BBC Radio 2 presenter a 'pedo [sic] defender' on X, formerly Twitter. The pair settled the civil claim last year after Barton posted two apologies on the same social media platform and agreed to pay a total of £110,000 in damages to Vine, as well as his legal costs. In an agreed statement read out at the High Court in October last year, barrister Gervase de Wilde, for Vine, said that the broadcaster 'was deeply alarmed, distressed and upset' by Barton's actions, which included a 'persistent and highly damaging campaign of defamation, harassment and misuse of private information'. On Tuesday, a specialist costs court heard that Barton - who was once capped by England, playing just 17 minutes - had agreed to pay £160,000 of Vine's costs from the main legal action. Costs Judge Colum Leonard also ordered Barton to pay a further £43,172.30 arising from the negotiation of the £160,000 figure, meaning he will pay a total of £203,172.30 of Vine's costs following the legal action. Lawyers for Vine told the High Court in May last year that Barton's posts amounted to a 'calculated and sustained attack'. Barton - who played for teams including Manchester City, Newcastle United, Rangers, and French side Marseille during his career - also began using '#bikenonce' on X, which led to it trending on the platform. Barton, 42, has apologised for his comments on social media, releasing a post on X After Mrs Justice Steyn ruled that some of the posts could defame Vine, Barton apologised to the journalist in June last year, stating that the allegations he made were 'untrue'. Among the posts shared included Barton publishing Vine's home address and a video of him in heels, with the caption: 'Nothing to see here'. He said that he would pay Vine £75,000 in damages, but solicitors for Vine later said Barton would pay a further £35,000 as part of a 'separate settlement' for claims published after legal action began. Mr De Wilde told the October hearing that Barton made four undertakings as part of the settlement, including not to harass Vine or encourage others to do so. Vine said following that hearing that Barton 'needs to find himself a different hobby'. The hearing on Tuesday was told that Barton agreed to pay £160,000 of Vine's legal costs earlier this month, and that Vine was claiming around £60,000 in costs for negotiating that figure. Suzanne Holmes, for Barton, said this was 'excessive' and 'disproportionate', and should be reduced. Kevin Latham, representing Vine, said Barton had 'repeatedly failed to engage in proper negotiation' throughout proceedings and 'has to bear the consequences of that approach'.
Western Telegraph
an hour ago
- Western Telegraph
Two men who cut down Sycamore Gap tree jailed for more than four years
Former friends Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, were convicted of criminal damage to the much-loved tree, which had stood for more than 100 years in a fold in the Northumberland landscape. They were also convicted of criminal damage to Hadrian's Wall, caused when the sycamore fell on the ancient monument in September 2023. The felled Sycamore Gap tree on Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland (Owen Humphreys/PA) Mrs Justice Lambert sentenced the pair, who have been held in custody following their trial in May, at Newcastle Crown Court on Tuesday. At trial, Richard Wright KC, prosecuting, told jurors the pair had engaged in a 'moronic mission' to cut down the landmark, travelling for more than 40 minutes from their homes in Cumbria, then carrying their equipment across pitch black moorland during a storm back in September 2023. The judge said she was sure Adam Carruthers felled the tree and Daniel Graham drove them to the scene and filmed it and that both were equally responsible for the criminal damage. They took a wedge from the tree as a trophy that has never been recovered and revelled in the media coverage as news of the vandalism caused national and international headlines. Mr Wright told the sentencing hearing that since the trial both defendants have now admitted they 'went on the mission' but denied intending for the tree to be cut down, either saying they were intoxicated or that they 'didn't believe it would happen until it did'. He said: 'The prosecution rejects these late admissions… The court can be sure they were sober and prepared to do what they did.' Mr Wright told the court: 'This was an expedition which required significant planning in terms of taking a vehicle, driving for about 40 minutes to a car park, taking with them appropriate specialist equipment, carrying the equipment for about 20 minutes' walk in each direction. 'The felling was carried out in a deliberate, professional way.' Daniel Graham, left, and Adam Carruthers (PA) He said one of the aggravating factors was the site's heritage status and the defendants' attempts to avoid detection. Mr Wright said they knew other people, including a young boy, had been arrested in connection with the offence and were 'closely following (the investigation) when they knew they were responsible'. Andrew Poad, a National Trust manager, gave a victim impact statement which was read out by Rebecca Brown, prosecution junior counsel. He said: 'This iconic tree can never be replaced. 'Whilst the National Trust has cared for it on behalf of the nation, it belonged to the people. It was totemic.' Mr Poad added: 'An overwhelming sense of loss and confusion was felt across the world. 'The question was why anyone would do this to such a beautiful tree in such a special place. 'It was beyond comprehension.' Shoots appearing to grow on the base of the Sycamore Gap tree in Northumberland (Owen Humphreys/PA) Mr Poad said an email address set up within days of the felling for people to share thoughts received 600 responses in a month. One said: 'My husband proposed to me at Sycamore Gap under its leafy shelter. A few years ago after lockdown we took our children to see and walk the same section of the wall. 'I'm so glad we got to share such a beautiful and special spot with them before it was gone.' The court was shown pictures of the new Sycamore Gap Celebration Room at The Sill site in Northumberland, and some comments left by people on a board and in the visitors' book. One said: 'Nature at its best over 300 years, humanity at its worst over one night.' Andrew Gurney, for Adam Carruthers, said his client had finally offered a motive for chopping down the tree and 'wishes to cleanse his conscience of what he has done'. He said: 'People want to know 'Why? Why did you conduct this mindless act?' 'Unfortunately, it is no more than drunken stupidity. 'He felled that tree and it is something he will regret for the rest of his life. There's no better explanation than that.' Chris Knox, defending Graham, said: 'He is a troubled man who has had very real difficulties in his life, which have not all been of his own making.' Mr Knox said Graham, a groundworker, had set up a 'proper business which paid tax and did all the appropriate things'. His home, and the business he operated from it, were attacked after he was remanded in custody, including having windows broken, the barrister said. The tree was a symbol of Northumberland, was the site of countless family visits and featured in the Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman film Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves. Its destruction, filmed on a mobile phone, took less than three minutes. The Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis, shining over the Sycamore Gap at Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland in 2016 (Owen Humphreys/PA) The maximum sentence for criminal damage is 10 years and aggravating factors include whether it was done to a heritage or cultural asset and evidence of wider impact on the community. The defendants were once close, working and socialising together, but have fallen out since their arrests and each blamed the other. Graham's Range Rover was picked up on automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras between Carlisle and Sycamore Gap at night on September 27 2023, and returning early the next morning. His mobile was traced to phone masts making the same journey. When police arrested the pair and searched Graham's phone, they found a two minute and 41 second video which showed the sycamore being cut down at 12.30am on September 28, and had been sent to Carruthers. Messages and voice notes between Graham and Carruthers the next day showed them talking about the story going 'wild' and 'viral'. Graham claimed Carruthers had a fascination with the sycamore, saying he had described it as 'the most famous tree in the world' and spoken of wanting to cut it down, even keeping a piece of string in his workshop that he had used to measure its circumference. Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers working together (CPS/PA) Carruthers denied this and told the court he could not understand the outcry over the story, saying it was 'just a tree'. Detective Inspector Calum Meikle, who led the investigation, said police still did not know why the pair felled the tree. He said: 'That is possibly the element of this entire case that is most frustrating to everybody, and it potentially is the one question that will never be truly known.' The National Trust, which owned the tree, said it had received thousands of messages from well-wishers after the tree was attacked. It has grown seedlings from the original sycamore which will be distributed to good causes around the country. A spokesperson said: 'The Sycamore Gap tree was iconic and represented thousands of cherished trees across the country that benefit people, nature, and climate. 'We remain committed to working with partners to secure stronger protections for these irreplaceable natural treasures.' A spokesperson for Northumberland National Park Authority said: 'Whilst today marks the end of the judicial process, work alongside our partners will continue, as we focus on reflecting public feeling about the tree and its cultural significance, as well as doing more for nature for the benefit of us all.'
