A prostitute who killed the woman who befriended her was jailed for life yesterday.
In an apparently motiveless crime, Margaret Seymour, 26, twice plunged a kitchen knife into 33-year-old Geraldine McGinty's back.
Ms McGinty, who lost an arm in a road accident, bled to death after the knife sliced into her heart and lung.
At the High Court in Glasgow, Seymour, of Gladstone Avenue, Barrhead, admitted murdering Ms McGinty in her home at Barnes Street, also Barrhead, on May 22.
Seymour's friend, Susan Tracey, 30, of Barnes Street, who was originally charged with murder, pleaded guilty to assaulting Ms McGinty with a crowbar.
She was jailed for 12 months, the sentence backdated to the time of her arrest, which means she will be free in a few weeks.
Martin Jones, prosecuting, revealed that despite investigations, no motive for what happened had emerged.
He revealed that, at 7.52am on the day of the murder, Ms McGinty was phoned by Seymour. The conversation lasted 15 minutes and, at 8.20am, neighbours saw Seymour and Tracey going to Ms McGinty's flat.
At 8.26am, an operator alerted police after a 999 call from Ms McGinty's home. There was no speech, but the operator could hear a disturbance.
Just before 8.30am, the two women left the close and went to the house of a friend who saw that Tracey had blood on her shirt and Seymour had blood on her hand.
Both women were agitated and Tracey said that they had ''battered a lassie''.
Mr Jones said that both accused were known prostitutes and drug addicts.
Ms McGinty, however, was known as a Good Samaritan in the area and was a respectable member of the community.
Edward Targowski QC, defending Seymour, said she told Ms McGinty various things and she had broken her confidences by telling her boyfriend. As a result he beat her.
Mr Targowski said Seymour who had been under the influence of drink and drugs, went to the flat with the intention of having an argument, but not to kill Ms McGinty. He claimed she took a crowbar to damage Ms McGinty's car. The knife was to help her open her own front door which was faulty.
Yesterday, Ms McGinty's mother, retired immigration officer Mrs Rosemary McGinty, 59, said: ''My daughter was a decent human being who helped everyone with money, food, or with somewhere to stay. She never judged anyone.''
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