A knife thug who murdered a man by stabbing him 13 times at a Renfrewshire flat has been jailed for life.

William McLean launched a ferocious attack on Ryan Low at the victim’s home in Springbank Road, Paisley, on June 25, 2020.

Ryan's body wasn't discovered until four days later, when police broke into the top-floor flat and found him lying on the kitchen floor.

McLean, 21, admitted assaulting and murdering Ryan by repeatedly stabbing him on the head and body during a court appearance last month.

When he returned to the High Court in Edinburgh today to learn his fate, he was ordered to serve 13-and-a-half years in jail before he can seek to apply for parole.

Passing sentence, Lord Richardson told McLean: "At the time you carried out this terrible crime you were still only 19 years old."

The judge also said he had considered victim impact statements provided by Ryan's family.

He told McLean: "It is all too apparent from these documents that your actions that day had, and continue to have, a profound impact on his family."

The court heard that former delivery driver McLean has previous convictions for offences including assault and robbery and had only been released from prison a fortnight before he murdered 32-year-old Ryan.

On the evening of June 24, 2020, Ryan had been joined at his home by McLean and others for some drinks.

One man later left and said that, at that time, nothing untoward was going on.

Advocate depute John Keenan told the court: “The precise details of what happened thereafter are unknown but it seems that, in the early hours of the morning, after he had left, there was a disagreement between the accused and Ryan Low.”

The prosecutor said McLean had armed himself with a knife and stabbed his victim in the living room before continuing the attack in the kitchen.

“The precise form and nature of the assault on the deceased on June 25 in 2020 will probably never be known,” said Mr Keenan.

McLean later got a bus to Glasgow and phoned a family friend to tell her that he had messed up and was covered in blood.

Mr Keenan said: “About 11am, he called his mother and asked her to pick him up in Clydebank. She collected him and noted he appeared to be under the influence of drink or drugs. He refused to say where he had been.”

It was stated that police found Ryan's body after his sister raised the alarm as he had arranged to visit her in Edinburgh but didn't turn up.

McLean was later interviewed as a witness and admitted he was at Ryan’s flat but claimed the victim was alive when he left.

A blood-stained knife blade was discovered down the back of a sofa at the flat.

A post-mortem showed that Ryan had suffered a number of injuries, including four stab wounds to the neck, two of which involved damage to the jugular veins.

The stab wounds to the neck were considered to be the main factor in his death.

Ryan was also found to have sustained defensive wounds as he tried to protect himself.

Defence counsel Thomas Ross QC told the court McLean came from a background of "severe neglect" and was in local authority care before his second birthday.

He said his client was diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder in 2016, adding: "He is, perhaps as a result of his condition, a man of few words."

Mr Ross also stressed that McLean was a teenager at the time of the murder and sentencing guidelines for young people applied to his case.