Married monster who murdered schoolgirl Paige Doherty by stabbing her 61 times wins right to appeal sentence

SCHOOLGIRL killer John Leathem has won the right to appeal his sentence.

Evil Leathem, 32, murdered 15-year-old Paige Doherty by stabbing her 61 times in a frenzied attack at his deli in Clydebank, near Glasgow.

The dad-of-one butchered the teenager as she stopped to buy a sandwich on her way to her Saturday job at a hairdressers’.

Last month Leathem was jailed for a minimum of 27 years after he admitted slaughtering the teen on March 19.

The killer, who left her with more than 140 injuries, has been granted the right to appeal his sentence.

It will be heard by a three-strong panel two days before Christmas.

Campaigners writing on the JusticeForPaige Facebook page said: "It has been confirmed that Paige's killer has been accepted to have his appeal heard and this will be heard before the end of the year.

"We now have less than seven weeks to campaign for JusticeForPaige.

"There are absolutely no words to describe how Paige's family, friends & community feel."

The High Court in Glasgow heard she suffered 146 knife wounds and was stabbed 61 times during the frenzied attack at Leathem’s Delicious Deli.

Leathem wrapped her body in bin bags and stashed it in his garden shed before brazenly returning to serve customers. He later dumped the remains near a road.

Images of Paige’s injuries were too horrific to show the court, where mum Pamela Munro, 33, and stepdad Andrew, 34, sobbed alongside family and friends.

Leathem's lawyer Ian Duguid QC told the High Court in Glasgow the killing was a “spontaneous, gross overreaction”.

He said there was no explanation for the killer’s actions and that “no-one could possibly” have predicted Leathem acting the way he did.

He added that Leathem had no history of anger — and that murdering Paige was “inexplicable” given his “pride and pleasure” in the community.

Mr Duguid said the fiend claimed to have taken Paige into the back office to discuss a job application, where he says he told her he would have to speak to her mother due to her age and that there were other candidates for the position as a shop assistant.