A MAN whose victim survived for 18 days after he was stabbed through

the heart in a city mugging was jailed for life yesterday at the High

Court in Glasgow.

The man who died, 45-year-old Mr Peter Smith, was attacked in a dark

lane late at night but had managed to stagger yards along a busy street

where a passer-by found him.

Mr Smith, of West Plean Cottages, West Plean, Stirling, died in

hospital from bronchial pneumonia due to the stab wound.

Yesterday a jury found 26-year-old Stuart Gair guilty of stabbing and

murdering Mr Smith in the city's North Court Lane off St Vincent Place,

on April 11 last.

As the verdict was announced two women jurors became distraught, and

they wept as Lord Prosser jailed Gair, of Belhaven Terrace, Dowanhill,

Glasgow, for life. As he was led from the dock Gair turned to the

weeping jurors and said: ''It's okay.''

Mr William McLeod, 24, who was originally a co-accused on the murder

charge, told the court that he and Gair had met up with Mr Smith that

night.

''We took him to the lane with the intention of robbing him,'' he told

Mr Alexander Wylie, prosecuting. He said he suddenly noticed a knife in

Gair's hand and ran away, and heard a low moaning noise as he did so.

Later he met Gair again and they decided that if questioned they would

say they did not know each other.

Mr McLeod claimed that while waiting for the trial he had been

threatened, and he said he was frightened of Gair.

The court heard how a businessman had noticed a trail of blood and

found Mr Smith slumped against a wall, covered in blood, at the entrance

to St Vincent Place toilets. He chased a passing ambulance along the

street to get help for the man.