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Image source, Police Scotland
Connor Manners told police after he was caught: "I was going to do another one"
A man who murdered a father of three in a knife attack has been jailed for life.
Connor Manners, 27, used a dating app to lure Gary Nicol to meet near a primary school in Livingston, West Lothian, on 26 September 2024.
Manners earlier admitted to stabbing and slashing Nicol during the fatal attack after they met in the early hours of the morning.
A judge at the High Court in Edinburgh ordered that Manners must spend at least 20 years in prison, but warned him: "You may never be released."
Advocate depute Alan Cameron KC told the court: "While there are no witnesses who can describe what happened when Mr Nicol and the accused met, it is clear that the accused lured him there with an intention to do him harm.
"He went to the meeting armed with a knife and a crossbow and repeatedly struck Mr Nicol with the knife, causing his death."
At sentencing, Lord Renucci said Manners had "perpetrated a brutal, premeditated and cowardly attack on an unsuspecting victim".
He added that any future decision over whether Manners is released will be for the parole board to make.
The court heard Manners and Nicol were previously unknown to each other but made contact through the dating app, Grindr.
Manners had created an account where he posed a teenager.
He got in contact with Nicol and made arrangements to meet on Bankton Lane near Williamston Primary School.
The court heard Nicol sustained two slash and six stab wounds to his neck, one of which punctured the jugular vein, and four stab wounds to his chest.
He was found dead in the early hours of the morning after a driver saw his car at the side of the road with his body next to it.
Image source, Police Scotland
Gary Nicol died after being found near Williamston Primary School in Livingston
A police investigation led to suspicion focusing on Manners and on 11 October 2024, officers went to his home.
Manners told them: "I am surprised it took you so long to be honest.
"All the evidence you need is in a black bag in the kitchen."
He added: "The knife that is stuck in the wall is the knife that was used."
Advocate depute Alan Cameron KC said the knife Manners referred to was lodged in a wall holding up a piece of paper titled "assasin (sic) checklist".
It contained a list of bullet points to study weapons training, human anatomy, serial killers, unsolved cases, forensics and how the police operate.
The prosecutor added: "Within the black bag were various items of clothing and shoes which were stained with Mr Nicol's blood."
Manners was taken to Livingston police station and while he was being processed announced: "Just as well you caught me, I was going to do another one."
He was seen by a forensic psychiatrist who concluded he was unfit to be interviewed by detectives.
The prosecutor said: "He told her a number of things. These included that he had killed a number of other people before.
"He provided some detail about the purported killings. Subsequent police investigation found no evidence that they had occurred."
"The accused said that on this occasion he had wanted to get caught in order that he could get his dream job as an assassin for a government or governmental agency," Cameron added.
The court heard that after he was charged and remanded in custody Manners spent about four months in the high security State Hospital at Carstairs before being returned to the mainstream prison system.
Defence counsel Ian Duguid KC said Manners was currently getting antipsychotic medication and told the court: "Whatever personality disorder he is afflicted with it is not one that affects his responsibility for the crime."
