Edinburgh mum whose son was killed by teen on bail for another knife attack 'failed by system'

An Edinburgh mum whose son was killed by a teenager on bail for an earlier knife attack says she’s been failed by the system.

John McNab, 22, was stabbed to death in an unprovoked attack on Great Junction Street in Leith on 2 September.

He was chased and killed by a 16-year-old – now 17 – who had been released on bail after being charged with a knife attack on another 16-year-old boy at Portobello Beach four months earlier. The teenager was sentenced to a minimum of 17 years in prison earlier this month after pleading guilty to both attacks.

"He used a knife yet still got out - where's the justice?"

John’s mum, Lisa Petrie, believes her son’s killer should never have been allowed back on the streets - and is calling for tougher bail conditions. “It's always been implemented that if you were caught carrying a knife you would get an automatic five years, that's never been upheld. This lad, he used a knife yet still got out - where's the justice?

“If you’ve been charged with using a serious weapon, and a serious assault, then there needs to be scrutiny if you can come back into the community. I don’t think he was investigated enough to say that he was mentally capable of being let into the community.

“Why is it taking until us parents are losing our kids for anybody to listen, the government to listen, the courts to listen? Why does it have to be us that make change?

“You're not telling me the government and the courts are not seeing how rife this is, so why are they not making change now? Why are they waiting for another child to be lost, another dad to be lost, another daughter to be lost?”

In CCTV footage shown to the High Court in Edinburgh, John could be heard begging for his life before the teenager – who cannot be named for legal reasons - repeatedly stabbed him.

On 21 March last year, four months prior, the teenager chased and wounded a 16-year-old boy at Portobello Promenade. He was arrested and released on bail after appearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on 25 April.

Pauline Bowie is the CEO of charity LIFT (Low Income Families Together) based at Muirhouse Millenium Centre in North Edinburgh. She has known John since he was 3 years old and has been working closely with Lisa since his death.

"Why should his age be an excuse for his behaviour?"

“It doesn't matter if he was 16, because that's all we've heard, is he was 16, but he was 16 and murdered somebody, so why should his age be an excuse for his behaviour?” Pauline said.

“He was out on bail in a residential facility, what does that actually mean then? What is a residential facility if he was just out carrying the same backpack that was on video on the CCTV in Portobello? He had the same backpack on in Leith for over three hours, stalking that flat with the same backpack with a knife inside it. And he was out on bail, so who was monitoring him?

“John should still be here. Nobody can debate that fact that if he had been punished right in the first place John would be here.

“We now know that there's been a background to him, he's been like that all his life, so we now know that. We weren't allowed to know that before, but in court they said he had no previous, and because he was 16 we wouldn't have known that anyway, but that he was destructive and he felt violence deserved violence. That's just how he's always been.

“So he’s obviously been known, but he was still allowed to just walk the streets, and God knows what else he could have done that night, because he was walking about with a backpack with knives in it.

"The courts and the system have let Lisa down."

“This is what we need to be talking about, real life. This person's suffering right now because the courts and the system have let Lisa down.”

Lisa now actively campaigns against knife crime, fundraising and distributing bleed kits which are specifically designed to handle life threatening bleeding from an injury or attack

She is also calling for major supermarkets and retailers to keep all kitchen knives off the shop floor - in locked cabinets or behind customer service counters - as well as fitting security tags and bringing in strict under-18 ID checks.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Whilst overall youth violence has been decreasing, we know that is of no comfort to victims or their families. The Scottish Government has made it crystal clear there is no reason to ever carry a weapon, including a knife, at any time.

“We are investing record funding of more than £1.7 billion for policing in 2026-27 and Scotland continues to have more police officers per head of population than England and Wales.

“We continue to work with partners to tackle and prevent youth violence and in particular knife crime, alongside education, diversion and mentoring programmes. This is supported by our investment of more than £6 million since 2023 in targeted prevention and early intervention activity in schools, hospitals and across communities to tackle violence and its harms.

“Decisions on whether to grant bail are a matter for the independent courts based on the individual facts and circumstances of each case.”