TWO masked gunmen who boasted that they were “untouchable” yesterday received the longest sentences ever passed in a Scottish court after they were found guilty of a gangland-style triple shooting.
Raymond Anderson and James McDonald armed themselves with handguns to blast Michael Lyons, 21, to death at the Applerow Motors MOT centre in Glasgow’s Lambhill on the afternoon of 6 December, 2006.
They also left the victim’s cousin, Steven Lyons, and his friend Robert Pickett badly injured. Judge Lord Hardie yesterday ordered the pair to spend a minimum of 35 years in jail – the longest “punishment part” of a life sentence ever handed down.
The Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, was ordered to serve a minimum of 30 years for the murder of the 270 people who died when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded on 21 December, 1988.
Hold it right there. You mean to tell me that this pair is getting a similar sentence to a terrorist?
The pair had denied charges of murder and attempted murder. They had also denied being linked to a cache of military weapons, including machine guns and ammunition, stolen from army barracks. But the jury returned guilty verdicts against both after nearly two-and-a half days of deliberations.
Um~it was probably a good idea for them to have an extended stay in the klink, all things considered.
The pair were eventually linked to three machine guns, a bipod, a telescopic sight, ammunition and flares that had been stolen from the Catterick Garrison army barracks in North Yorkshire in 2004.
Terrorist-like tools of the trade, I would say.
