'Bold as brass' - My brother's killer brags on TikTok about partying in jail

Margaret McCallum thought she had seen the last of Ben McCulloch, the man who killed her brother, when he was handed a jail sentence four years ago.

That was until recently, when he appeared in a series of pictures and videos posted on social media – partying bare-chested in his cell.

The first picture Margaret saw was of McCulloch posing with another killer, taken inside HMP Shotts, with the caption: "They're deed and we're no hahah".

Gritting her teeth, Margaret told the BBC she felt "instant anger" when she saw the posts.

"It's so disheartening," she said. "You think he's behind us now, we don't need to deal with him anymore. And there he is, bold as brass, in our faces.

"How can you keep coming into our life? We're trying to move on from a massive trauma that you've dealt to our family, and now you're bragging about it.

"That's what it feels like to us. That he's bragging about how easy his time is. Our time isn't easy. Every single day is difficult."

Ben McCulloch stabbed Margaret's younger brother, 26-year-old Stephen Quigley, in Barrhead in March 2021.

The two were close friends and had been spending time together before the fatal attack.

McCulloch then left Stephen outside a hospital day unit, late at night when no-one was around to help him. Stephen tried to walk to A&E but was found dead by a staff member the next morning.

"We had to go and identify the body," said Margaret. "He had nothing on him, no keys, no phone, no wallet, nothing. He was just a body.

"Ben himself was up at the hospital a few hours later – the same hospital, a stone's throw away, he could have said something."

BBC Scotland reported last week how McCulloch was among a number of prisoners who have been illegally using mobile phones to film themselves celebrating and appearing to take drugs at HMP Addiewell in West Lothian - a maximum security prison.

One of the clips, posted on TikTok, shows a prisoner saying: "Who said life in jail was hard?"

The story was first reported in the Daily Record newspaper.

Mobile phones are banned in jails and their use can lead to disciplinary action or prosecution.

A prison official previously told BBC Scotland News an iPhone can be worth £5,000 behind bars.

Addiewell, the only privately run jail in Scotland, can hold just short of 800 prisoners and accommodates convicted adult male prisoners and men on remand.

Operator Sodexo Justice says on its website that it aims to "change lives for the better by operating safe, decent and secure prisons".

McCulloch was originally charged with Stephen Quigley's murder but agreed to plead guilty to the lesser crime of culpable homicide and avoid a trial.