A Saltcoats teenager who was found guilty of murdering his best friend's brother at a party has been jailed for life.

Stuart McCulloch, 18,stabbed 22-year-old Samuel Johnston at a flat in the North Ayrshire town's Parkend Gardens on October 26 last year.

He was told he must serve at least 13 years and five months in jail.

Co-accused Allan Carey, 19, from Ardrossan, was cleared of murder, but convicted of culpable homicide. He was jailed for three years.

Both accused were back in the dock at the High Court in Glasgow following a trial last month.

Jailing McCulloch for life, judge Bill Dunlop told him: "This is another senseless and tragic loss of life caused by the incomprehensible and casual indifference for the use of knives in the west of Scotland."

The judge told Carey that the jury must have been satisfied he was involved in an attack, but that the part he played was "impossible to know".

The pair showed no emotion as they were led handcuffed to the cells.

A murder charge against a third man, Fergal Morgan, from Drumchapel in Glasgow, was withdrawn during the trial.