CHAMPION boxer Grant Quigley is expected to learn his fate today as the jury in his attempted murder trial retired to consider their verdict.

Judge Lord Glennie this morning delivered his charge to the 15 men and women before they left the courtroom to reach a decision.

Quigley's defence team, led by solicitor Gerry Keenan, failed in a last-ditch effort to have the case against their client thrown out.

QC Joe Barr claimed the Crown had misled the jury by saying they were entitled to make their own judgement on the CCTV footage which showed the assault being carried out.

But his motion was rejected by Lord Glennie, who decided the jury would now rule on whether Quigley had tried to kill his 19-year-old victim. Quigley, 17, is now the only person charged with attempting to murder the man in Port Glasgow's Brown Street after co-accused Michael Murray, 18, had the charge against him dropped, following a motion by his defence team yesterday afternoon.

Murray, of Benview Road, Port Glasgow, instead had a guilty plea accepted to assaulting the man by punching and kicking him to his permanent disfigurement, with the attempted murder element dropped.

On Tuesday, the Crown also dropped the attempted murder charge against Quigley's other co-accused, 18-year-old Lee Doherty, who instead admitted assaulting a female at the scene and grabbing a phone from her.

Quigley has already confessed to the attack which left his victim lying unconscious on a roundabout near Tesco after he punched, kicked and repeatedly stamped on his head. However, he denies attempting to kill him.

In her closing speech to the jury, prosecutor Lesley Shand said that the amateur boxer, a four-time Scottish champion, hadn't cared if his victim lived or died.

She asked the jury to remember Quigley's claims that he had suffered severe bullying at the hands of the complainer, adding: "This was a brutal, violent and sustained assault on the head of a defenceless man.

"Under the influence of alcohol, Grant Quigley took a chance opportunity to vent his anger and resentment for things that had happened at school - and took revenge.

"He was reckless as to whether this man lived or died." The trainee scaffolder earlier told how he had been drinking with Doherty and Murray when they were approached by the man and his friend at the roundabout.

Quigley told how he had tried to walk away from the confrontation, claiming the man then threatened to stab him - but admitted then dishing out a severe beating that saw his victim rushed to hospital, bleeding from wounds to his face.

QC Joe Barr also addressed the jury, stressing that the evidence supported Quigley's claims that he had never intended to kill the teen.

He said: "This man was assaulted, severely assaulted in a deplorable manner, and Mr Quigley is the first person to admit that, but despite all the kicking, punching and stamping, the injuries caused were relatively minor - bruising, cuts and a perforated ear drum.

"Are these the consequences of a murderous attack?

"The decision you take will be one of the most important in this young man's life.

"I only ask that you do this fairly and openly." Quigley, of Port Glasgow's Hillside Drive, is charged with attempting to murder the 19-year-old on 20 November 2010 by repeatedly punching and kicking him on the head and body and repeatedly jumping and stamping on his head and body, all to his severe injury and to the danger of the man's life.

Doherty, of St Mary's Wynd, Stirling, and Murray will both be sentenced at the conclusion of the trial.