Detectives have launched a murder hunt following the death of a man in Livingston.
The body of Blair Gault, 32, was found with serious injuries on a footpath behind houses in the Buchanan Crescent area of the town early on Tuesday morning.
Police say he suffered a "suffered a sustained and violent attack" and have begun door-to-door inquiries in neighbouring streets, while appealing to the public for information.
The area where the man was found is a footpath in an open area between Fintry Avenue and Buchanan Crescent. There is a railway line running through it and the man was found close to Buchanan Crescent.
Officers are now seeking to establish where the 32-year-old was on Monday evening and the early hours of Tuesday morning and who he was with.
It is hoped that CCTV images from the streets around the area may be able to help with the probe.
Enquiries carried out so far have established that Blair was in the area between Fintry Avenue and Buchanan Crescent around the time of 2.30 to 3am. Despite the timing, officers are asking local residents to think back and consider if they heard or saw anything suspicious or unusual.
Detective Superintendent Andrew Patrick from the Major Investigation Team said: “We need to piece together Blair’s movements.
"We know he was in the general area of Fintry Avenue and the pathway between the railway line and Buchanan Crescent around 2.30 to 3am, we need to know why he was there and did he see or meet anyone there.
“Blair suffered a sustained and violent attack. This area is surrounded by houses and while we are conducting door-to-door enquiries, we would appeal for anyone who may have heard any disturbance in the early hours of the morning to contact the Police.”
He added: “If you heard or saw anything, even if you’re not sure if it’s relevant, please contact us and let us assess and evaluate its importance.
“Sometimes all it takes is one small piece of information which can prove vital in an ongoing investigation.”
Anyone with information is asked to call detectives on 101, quoting incident number 0290 of 16 November, 2021. Alternatively, please call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 where your information can be given anonymously.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here