TRIBUTES have been paid to a 52-year-old charity worker found dead in Paisley.
Police launched a murder investigation after Alyson Watt died in Penilee Road. A 16-year-old boy is in a critical condition in hospital following the incident on Friday evening.
The alarm was raised by neighbours after a dog covered in blood was seen in the street. The emergency services arrived in the street on Friday, around 5pm.
One woman, who asked not to be named, said: “Six police cars and ambulances arrived and the police tape went up. It was a total shock.
“I know the lady. It’s just terrible what’s happened. She used to come over with her son when he was younger and I’d do alterations to his school uniform.”
The 16-year-old was described by staff at a nearby hair salon as a “quiet soul”.
Lesley Essler, who runs the business in Penilee Road, said: “I was in floods of tears when I found out what happened. I hardly slept last night. He comes in here to get his hair cut and he’s a quiet soul. I hope he pulls through.”
Watt worked for charity Barnardo’s and was described yesterday as a “much-valued” employee. Martin Crewe, Director of Barnardo’s Scotland, said: “We are shocked and deeply saddened to learn of the death of our colleague Alyson Watt, who was a much-valued and long-standing member of staff in Paisley.
“Our thoughts are with all those affected by this tragedy and we are continuing to support police with their inquiries.”
The street remained cordoned off last night as forensic officers gathered evidence.
Detectives launched a manhunt following the incident in Paisley. A 54-year-old man was later arrested in connection with a murder and attempted murder.
Police Scotland said he was traced in Dumfries and Galloway area.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article