THE man who murdered Greenock dad Jamie Walsh once penned a play about drugs and violent crime in the town, it’s been revealed.

Thomas Sellar, 38, was yesterday jailed for life for cutting his 23-year-old victim down in Wren Road before stabbing himself in a desperate bid to evade justice.

Sellar had shamelessly claimed that Mr Walsh, inset, stabbed him during the incident, but police uncovered evidence to show that he had been lying. 

Yesterday, shortly before Judge Lord Ericht ordered him to serve a minimum of 18 years behind bars, it emerged that back in 1997 the killer had written a play called ‘Dead Boyz Tales’ when he was 19-years-old. 

His hour-long production told of the problems that some Greenock teenagers had staying away from drugs and crime. 

It was performed at the Arts Guild, with a cast made up of young people struggling with addictions and Sellar taking a leading role on stage.

In an interview with the Tele in August 1997, self-styled playwright Sellar said: “I doubt anyone else in this town had a childhood like mine - Dead Boyz Tales came from looking back at me and my pals a few years ago.”

He told how he had left school with no qualifications, turned to crime and spent most of his late teens in detention centres, adding: “I felt like an idiot because I was in the jail and because I’d been stupid.”

Of his play, he said: “It is about life - it has its ups and downs, tragedy and happiness.”

Yesterday, defence advocate Herbert Kerrigan QC told the courtroom that his client had failed to heed the messages contained within his own piece of drama.

The lawyer added: “He did not carry out the intentions of the play, which was to divorce himself from the criminal environment which he had entered into.”

Sellar had been found guilty last month of murdering Jamie on September 10 last year. 

He claimed he’d acted in self defence on the night because Jamie was among a group of youths attacking him.

Sellar and Jamie both lived at 123 Wren Road and during the trial jurors heard how Jamie had moved into a flat below Sellar.

In the days before the incident, Sellar had objected to ‘noise’ coming from downstairs.

On the night Jamie died his upstairs neighbour had gone to the property to try to convince the residents to keep the noise down.

Sellar claimed he was chased back to his own flat, was being ‘battered’ by the youths and felt he had no other option but to grab a knife.

Jamie died on the street shortly after being stabbed by Sellar, who later insisted he ‘never intended for anything like this to happen’.

The killer’s lawyer yesterday told Lord Ericht that his client had expressed remorse for his actions. 

But passing sentence, the judge told Sellar: “It is because of your actions that Jamie Walsh is dead and it is because of your actions that the family of Jamie Walsh have lost a much loved son and brother.”