Wirral killer Gary Finlay loses appeal against 25-year prison sentence

Mar 5 2010 by Ben Rossington, Liverpool Echo

THE man who murdered a Merseyside dad in the street and left his son critically injured will serve all of his 25 years in prison.

Appeal court judges yesterday declared Gary Finlay was not deserving of any time off the double life sentence he was given for killing soldier Graham McKenna and the attempted murder of then 14-year-old Michael McKenna.

His legal team tried to argue the Recorder of Liverpool, Judge Henry Globe QC, had not given 46-year-old Finlay sufficient credit for his guilty plea.

A guilty plea can attract a discount in sentence of up to one-third.

But the London judges said Judge Globe’s ruling and the sentence passed were both legally sound and saw no reason to take any more years off.

Finlay targeted Mr McKenna, a 45-year-old dad-of-two from Claughton, stabbing him repeatedly in a street close to his home in January last year.

Leaving Mr McKenna dying in the doorway of a house, Finlay then turned on the terrified Michael, who was on his way to Goodison Park to watch Everton FC when they were attacked.

The schoolboy was stabbed 12 times but miraculously pulled through.

Finlay then went on the run, living rough in Liverpool city centre, before handing himself into police six weeks later.

Liverpool crown court heard Finlay, of Alexandra Road, Oxton, had chillingly warned friends of his plans “to get” the McKenna family.

Finlay’s hatred towards them grew after his wife – the sister of Mr McKenna’s widow Gill – left with their two children following years of domestic abuse.

After yesterday’s hearing, Mrs McKenna said: “I am just so relieved.