The mother of murdered schoolgirl Paige Doherty has told STV News she wants to face her daughter's killer in prison.

John Leathem killed the 15-year-old in a "savage and frenzied" attack at his sandwich shop in Clydebank in March before dumping her in bushes nearby.

The deli shop owner left Paige with more than 146 wounds in the murderous assault before attempting to cover up his crime.

Pamela Munro spoke to STV News the day after the man who took her daughter's life was jailed for at least 27 years for his crime.

The heartbroken mother said she will "never understand" how a grown man could kill an innocent young girl and revealed she wants to visit Leathem in prison to confront him about what he did.

She said: "I think he owes that to us at least; to say to us this is the reason. He's got nothing else to lose.

"Hopefully one day I can face him. I want him to accept a visit from me, for me to face him and say to him; ask him face to face. Paige is my daughter. I will ask the question.

"And I'll do it to his face when he accepts a visit. I think he will accept a visit eventually but we'll see. I would want to. I've said it from the day it happened."

Pamela sat in court on Wednesday as the man who brutally ended her daughter's life was sentenced for murder.

"I just tried to block him out. I've got a lot of anger towards him, naturally, but I wasn't going to embarrass Paige by starting to shout abuse at him and things", she said.

"I'm disgusted that he could do something so horrific to a wee girl who was honestly the most respectful wee girl you would ever meet. She would never do anything to provoke anyone."

The court heard that Paige suffered in excess of 146 wounds during a ten-minute attack by Leathem, in what judge Lady Rae described as an "horrific level of violence".

Pamela went on: "It's not 146 injuries that Paige suffered. She suffered a lot more. I seen them. I seen Paige, half her neck was missing. It was, it was...parents shouldn't have to see that.

"How you can do that? It never took ten minutes. In my eyes it never took the ten minutes that he said it took. It was something that I hope no-one has to ever see.

"It's bizarre that he could hurt her in any way, never mind to go to the lengths that he went to.

"I open up the newspapers and I read it and I get so angry because the media don't report on how brutal it actually was and I don't know why they don't."

The only explanation ever given for Paige's murder is from the man who took her life. Leathem's legal team claimed Paige walked into his deli that morning to ask for a job.

When he told her he could not, the teenager said she would tell people he touched her inappropriately - a claim the judge said was not supported by any evidence.

Pamela said: "It never happened. Paige was the least confrontational person you could ever meet. She'd never put herself in a position that she'd be scared because she couldn't cope with it.

"She would never do anything to even provoke somebody shouting at her. She really was a respectful wee girl.

"Anything that happened to Paige, she'd come to me right away and say 'mum this person said this to me, you need to go and speak to them' and I would be at their door in two seconds saying why are speaking to my daughter like that?

"She didn't deal with things herself, she just couldn't. She just wouldn't confront somebody like that. She isn't capable of it, it's just not in her at all."

Pamela went on: "I think it's happened the other way. I think maybe he's tried something. But again, I wasn't there. I can't say that's what happened but I think we all know that's probably the case.

"He'll have his story...nobody believes it and everybody that knows Paige could stand up here and say Paige never done that, she never said that and she wouldn't have said that.

"It wasn't built into her to act like that. She would have respected him too much to say that.

"She had no reason not to trust John Leathem. I had no reason not trust John Leathem. He never, ever gave off anything to make you think: "don't trust me".

"That's the worrying thing. Paige could have went in there and worked and I'd have allowed it because you thought you could trust him."

The teenager's mother has also revealed how police told her of rumours circulating that Paige may have been in a relationship with her killer but these were quashed almost immediately.

"She only knew him from going in and out the shop. She was in the shop a lot more than I was as a customer but then again we know all the shopkeepers round about here, you get to know them, you get to speak to them," Pamela said.

"She's been in with me before and as a typical teenager giving me cheek and he would say that's what my daughter is like - just conversation that happens when you're in these places."

Detectives investigated the possible link between the killer and his young victim but found no evidence to suggest there was anything going on between the two.

"She's not got him on Facebook. Obviously there's lots of rumours go about. They're all lies. The police investigate everything. There's never been a phone call, a text message, an email, any contact between any of the two of them," the grieving mother told STV News.

"The police look into these things thoroughly and they came to me and they said that's one of the rumours, we need to rule it out. She said to me you've got nothing to worry about.

"Paige wasn't seeing him. It just baffles me as to why people come up with these rumours. If Paige was seeing him and somebody knew round about here, why did they not come and say to us?

"Why would they not have said to us before it happened? Why did it only become a rumour after it happened? Whitecrook is a small place, if that was going on we would have known. We would have known.

"You open up the papers again and that's all you see: there's more to it, there must be more to it, you don't just kill somebody.

"No, she was an innocent 15-year-old, she walked into a shop to buy a roll, trusted the person and he's attacked her."

Leathem was sentenced to life in prison and will have to serve at least 27 years behind bars before he is considered for parole but Pamela believes the killer will never be allowed out of jail.

Paige's mother added: "He won't be released, he won't meet parole requirements, I can't imagine. He's got no psychological issues that he can work on for them to deem him fit to go into the community.

"He snapped, apparently, at something somebody said he didn't like. What's to say he won't snap again at something somebody says that he doesn't like.

"You can do that at any point and if there's no psychological issues behind that then you've got nothing to improve on.

"They couldn't possibly let him back out."

Pamela has accepted that she, and the rest of their family, will never move on from what has happened, but takes comfort in knowing her daughter will always be remembered.

She said: "I don't think we'll ever move on properly. I think it's something that's just going to live with us forever. It's a lways going to be there.

"We just need to learn to deal with it as best we can and not dwell on the horrific part of it, we need to remember Paige and remember who she was and just blank John Leathem out of it.

"He isn't worth our headspace and he isn't worth mentioning."

Mrs Munro set up a charity providing self-defence classes for children after the death of her daughter.

She launched up Paige's Promise in the summer, which will also seek to establish a befriending service for bereaved children.

Self-defence classes began in Clydebank earlier this year and Ms Munro hopes it will expand to Glasgow as well.

She said: "That's the way we plan to move forward. Paige will always be remembered, she's always going to be a huge part of our lives whether she's here or whether she's not.

"I've got loads of photos and memories stored in my head. I just need to think about her and I know that she'll be there with me, she'll be by my side for the rest of my life. There's obstacles we've had to face where she not been able to come like her aunt's wedding, but when we did the 10K - it's all things I would do with her.

"I just try and take comfort in knowing she would have been doing it with me. She would have been there, she would have been beside us and that's the way we're going to have to think. That's the way I'll teach my kids to think.

"I'll always speak about her, I'll never make it a subject that can't be brought up in our house."