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00:00My journey to Orkney began on the return flight from Bangladesh where the gentleman I was sitting next to.
00:08He offered a job with his brother's restaurant. I thought, why not? Never been to an island. Let's go.
00:15I was around about 20, 21 when my brother asked me to join him in the Orkney Isles.
00:23And it was like a experience of a lifetime.
00:27And then Shamil joined us in the restaurant.
00:32He was always smiling. He had like a little giggle constantly. He was full of life.
00:40We all called him handsome because of his dress sense.
00:45All the customers used to call him handsome as well. And he liked it.
00:50He was a friendly type of a fella. He wasn't danger to anybody.
00:57What we're seeing here is a live ram being fired at point-blank range, which is what happened with Shamshida.
01:10So his perpetrator literally went up as close as he possibly could.
01:14It was like a scene out in an American gangster movie.
01:22Doesn't sweat. Doesn't hesitate. Calm. Cool. No sweat.
01:29Which is what you need to be to walk into a restaurant and kill somebody at point-blank range.
01:33Asking your son if you killed a man is horrendous.
01:44Ballistic evidence should have led detectives straight to 15-year-old Ross.
01:48But his father, seen here, was a police officer involved in the inquiry.
01:52And he covered up evidence to protect him.
01:59Michael Ross is a racist murderer.
02:01The punishment, 25 years in prison.
02:05Michael was not just like any other 15-year-old.
02:08He had access to guns.
02:10How could this have been a 15-year-old boy?
02:17It's not the kind of crime that is committed by a 15-year-old boy in Orkney.
02:22Well, I believe this to be the good man.
02:25And that's not Michael Ross.
02:30Although it seems like odd behaviour, there is a convincing explanation.
02:34But then, Michael does something with his balacalava, which is harder to explain.
02:44Somebody came out of the toilet.
02:46It was a young boy.
02:48He had a gun in his hand.
02:50And I knew he was.
02:52I was terrified.
02:58This call is from a Scottish prison.
03:01It will be logged and recorded and may be monitored.
03:03Yeah, I can't be any queerer.
03:06I never murdered Samson.
03:09If not Michael, who did kill Samson?
03:15A man with a mask on came in and thought he was in to shoot everyone.
03:33This has been a stranger, twistier case than I could have imagined.
03:53Being in Orkney, hearing everyone's testimony and reading the files has been astonishing.
04:01But I still can't decide whether Michael Ross killed Samson in the mood or not.
04:07Either he had the ability, as a 15-year-old boy, to walk into a restaurant and shoot someone
04:14at point-blank range, which is what he's been convicted of.
04:18Or, this has been a terrible miscarriage of justice.
04:22And someone else murdered Samson.
04:23Someone who's never been caught.
04:24It's a frightening thought.
04:36But there's a chapter of the story that I've yet to investigate.
04:39That's the 14-year period between the police being unable to charge Michael Ross as a teenager
04:45through to his conviction.
04:48I want to dig into the hundreds of witness statements, internal reports and documents
04:54that I've got hold of, which covers this period.
04:58And especially Michael's trial.
05:00I want to use these documents to try and figure out what really happened.
05:06And the best place to start is when Michael went into the army.
05:17This photograph is of Michael when he was in the Blackworks Regiment, probably within the
05:21first year.
05:23Best regiment in the Scottish Division.
05:26He was always interested in different regiments.
05:28And although the regiment for this area was the Queen's Own Highlanders, he probably heard
05:33stories I was telling and he chose the Blackworks film.
05:38And he did very well in it too, so...
05:41Michael Ross has never spoken publicly about his case.
05:45But I've got hold of audio recordings of him answering questions which have never been
05:50heard before.
05:52He hasn't been challenged by a journalist, but his answers give a unique insight.
05:58into his version of events.
06:00Michael Ross excels in the army and he becomes, of all things, a sniper in the Blackworks.
06:05By 2004, he and his regiment are sent to Iraq and stationed in Bajra,
06:10where they become embroiled in 10 days of intensive fighting.
06:12So I've followed my dad's footsteps being a Blackwatch owner.
06:14Once I've reached the time, we worked hard and it was almost like a family itself.
06:19Michael Ross excels in the army and he becomes, of all things, a sniper in the Blackwatch.
06:30By 2004, he and his regiment are sent to Iraq and stationed in Bajra, where they become embroiled
06:35in 10 days of intensive fighting.
06:37I was missing on this number one sniper.
06:38And my number two sniper is a lad, John.
06:39A really brave guy.
06:40He was a proper good guy to have with me, so I was really just, I had him with me.
06:44There's, there's, I'm here, and then Mickey's just down there to the left.
06:51There's Mickey there.
06:52There's Mickey there.
06:53I'm John.
06:54I was a servant soldier with the 1st Battalion, the Blackwatch, and I'll serve with Mickey
06:55Ross in Iraq, 04.
06:56Michael was a gentleman.
06:57But he was cool.
06:58Cool and calm.
06:59Like, you know.
07:00He was a good guy to have with me.
07:01He was a proper good guy to have with me, so I was really just, I had him with me.
07:03There's, there's, I'm here, and then Mickey's just down there to the left.
07:08There's Mickey there.
07:09I'm John.
07:14I was a servant soldier with the 1st Battalion, the Blackwatch, and I'll serve with Mickey
07:20Ross in Iraq, 04.
07:21Michael was a gentleman, but he was cool.
07:24Cool and calm.
07:25Like, he never got, he never got excited.
07:27A lot of people, if you're getting shot at and all, have been getting excited and all,
07:30and he was calm, you know.
07:32Like, he'd been living the worst one his whole life, nearly, like.
07:35This is just my Iraq album from the two tours I'd done.
07:39I'd done the war back in 2003, and then were sent back out.
07:43Basically, that's just me.
07:45I think that's about the first day of the war.
07:48Just this, Michael there.
07:51He'd wake up in the morning, there'd be mortars coming in.
07:54Then all snipers would go up to the roof.
07:57And he could be there for maybe four, six, eight hours a day.
08:02Man, it was calm.
08:04There was no excitement out of him, though.
08:06He knew his job.
08:07He was his number.
08:08He was the sniper, and he was his number, too, like.
08:10First, I was spotting targets for him.
08:16It was hard going, like, but it was good.
08:17It was good fun.
08:18It was an experience, you know.
08:20It was.
08:22It might sound strange, in a way, because he's kind of getting used to being in gunfights.
08:27We were up in an area that was, like, the Wild West.
08:31Lots of RPGs, funes, and commands getting thrown about.
08:35Oh, that's gunfired here, there, and everywhere.
08:37Me and him broke out real close, like.
08:39Then he'd said about all this, that case that was going on.
08:42He was describing it all to me about what had happened,
08:45what he'd been accused of years ago,
08:47and that it was a racist thing and all,
08:49and Mickey was racist, like.
08:51He's far from it.
08:53The opposite of racist, you know.
08:56And I asked him had he done it, and he said no,
08:59and I never, ever, asked him again about it.
09:01You know, he just took his word.
09:03He was a man of his word, like, you know.
09:07Later on, when we moved north to support the U.S. Marines,
09:10my costume ended up being in a, a, a suicide bombing.
09:13A mass casualty situation.
09:16Wow.
09:25An Orvany soldier has been recognised for his bravery
09:27during his tour of duty in Iraq.
09:29Colonel Michael Ross, who served with the Black Watch for nine years,
09:32was singled out for showing bravery
09:34after he held people wounded by an explosion in Basra.
09:37He was mentioned in dispatches for looking after the injured
09:40while coming under fire himself.
09:43I heard it on Radio Orkney and, oh, got so, so excited.
09:48I thought, oh, I must phone Eddie.
09:50And, yeah, just very excited about it.
09:53Very proud moment again.
09:56It reads, by the Queen's Order, the name of Corporal Michael Alexander Ross,
10:01the Black Watch, was published in the London Gazette
10:04on Friday 18th of March 2005.
10:06I mentioned in dispatches for gallantry.
10:09I am charged to record Her Majesty's high appreciations.
10:13And so he got for that.
10:15The one in the corner there, the third one in with small silver oak leaf.
10:19He'd go out for his actions.
10:22There was two bomb explosions on several of the vehicle servers.
10:25A few people were killed.
10:27In fact, Michael was in the...
10:29He was the commander of the vehicle he was in
10:31and he was literally in the turret and his bomb went off.
10:34But his driver there, he was the boy that was killed.
10:37But then, something happens closer to home.
10:45A programme is broadcast back in the UK
10:48which drags the Ross family back into the case of who murdered Shamil.
10:55Orkney is a community not exactly renowned for violent crime.
10:59But that peaceful image was shattered nearly ten years ago
11:02in an act of almost unimaginable brutality.
11:05The killer is still at large.
11:08The prime suspect is Michael Ross.
11:11Married with a baby girl, he's in the Black Watch Regiment
11:15and is currently an instructor at the Catholic Training Barracks in Yorkshire.
11:20So they name him, yet a decade earlier
11:24there wasn't enough evidence to charge him.
11:26Police believe they're not that far away from bringing a person
11:29before a jury in this case
11:31but are still missing that final piece of evidence to complete the jigsaw.
11:34In 2006, two years after that documentary aired,
11:40this final piece of the jigsaw dropped into place.
11:43So here at Kirkwall Police Station, a man walks in off the street
11:51and hands in an anonymous letter.
11:53We say anonymous, but he wasn't really
11:56because the woman on the front desk knew who he was.
11:59His name was William Grant.
12:01And I'm going to read you some of this letter.
12:03It says,
12:04This is a true letter.
12:05I promised that I saw the person who killed the Indian waiter.
12:09I saw his face in full and the handgun.
12:12It was in the toilets at Kiln Corner.
12:15I have lived long enough with the guilt of not coming forward.
12:18William Grant would become the new star witness,
12:22allowing the police to reopen the case against Michael Ross.
12:27He's never given an interview.
12:30Until now.
12:32I am William Gordon Grant.
12:39I saw the person in the toilet.
12:42And saw him running out after.
12:44If it wasn't for my testimony indeed,
12:46the trial would never have happened yet.
12:48That's young Michael Ross.
12:51I knew his age was 14 or 15.
12:53I can't tell you somewhere about there.
12:55I put my glasses on.
12:56No one wants to see him any better.
13:00That's the person I saw right enough.
13:02I can't get away from that fact.
13:05I wish I'd never bloody seen him.
13:11On the night of the murder,
13:13William Grant says that he was out drinking by himself.
13:17Now at some point between 7 and 9pm,
13:19William tells the police that he went in to use the toilets,
13:23which one stood behind me here.
13:28When he's inside,
13:29he says that he comes face to face with Michael,
13:31who's holding a gun.
13:33He says they stayed at each other for 15 to 20 seconds,
13:36and then William Grant leaves the toilet.
13:39And this is a picture of him.
13:45Golly, my goalie.
13:46I can't mind when that was taken.
13:51It's like getting back a few years now indeed.
13:53Yeah.
13:54I was in the toilet,
14:01and I had somebody rustling a bag
14:05in one of the cubicles.
14:09I was just wondering what I was doing.
14:11Somebody came out of the toilet.
14:13It was a young boy.
14:15He had a gun in his hand.
14:20I knew it was Michael's face.
14:21I was terrified.
14:23I thought to myself,
14:24I could be the next victim.
14:29I stupidly stayed quiet.
14:31I thought this would be the best thing to do.
14:33This is the letter.
14:35This is William Grant's letter.
14:37This is what he handed in to the police station,
14:40and that just kick-started things again.
14:43This is a true letter.
14:45I promise that I saw the person who killed the Indian waiter.
14:49I saw his face in full and the handgun.
14:52Handgun.
14:54I have lived long enough with the guilt of not coming forward.
14:57The person was about 15 years plus of age.
15:00White, and had a balaclava on his head,
15:03but still not turned down.
15:05Kind of...
15:07On top.
15:09On top like that.
15:11That's what it was.
15:12Maybe the eye bits were there, or something.
15:15I think it was.
15:16And I thought, a balaclava!
15:20The handgun was natural polished metal, or silver,
15:24and was like a big Beretta.
15:26This may sound stupid, but the way he held the handgun
15:30looked like he had handled a firearm before.
15:33I just don't ken what to do.
15:36Worried sick witness.
15:41We'll pop it on the wall.
15:43Worried sick.
15:51Now, as a lawyer, maybe you can call me cynical,
15:53but I trained in criminal defence before I became a human rights lawyer.
15:55OK, so the first thing I'd ask is,
15:57why would anybody say this is a true lawyer?
16:04I wonder, why didn't you call the police?
16:10My lawyer phoned me and said that either a guy come forward,
16:13William Grant,
16:14William Grant,
16:15said that he'd seen me in the toilets,
16:17a kind of killing corner,
16:19with a balaclava and a gun.
16:23What was it at that point?
16:24I didn't know who this William Grant person was.
16:27Never let him before, as far as I was aware.
16:29The Mumutaz was cordoned off today as local police and officers
16:34brought in from the mainland searched for the killer.
16:36He'd burst into the restaurant wearing a balaclava
16:38and blasted the waiter in the face before running out onto the street.
16:42Everybody in Ireland had been interviewed.
16:45Why he didn't volunteer that information at the time, I have no idea.
16:52I don't think I've seen this letter till now,
16:55but it sounds a bit specific,
16:59how he could say he was 15-year-old.
17:01I mean, that'd be difficult to judge.
17:04A good description of the gun.
17:06My first involvement in the case is when that letter came forward.
17:12I thought the letter at the time was particularly compelling
17:17in the sense of the paragraph where he indicates that,
17:21in his view, the person looked like they had handled a gun before.
17:26William Grant gives four statements to the police.
17:3012 years after Shamal is murdered.
17:34The interesting thing about them is that they keep changing.
17:38Now, given it's William's testimony
17:41that would lead to Michael eventually going on trial
17:45and then being found guilty,
17:46I think it's important to look at these really, really closely.
17:51Let's consider the murder weapon.
17:54In William's anonymous letter,
17:55he refers to it at different times, by the way,
18:01as a handgun, a big Beretta and a firearm.
18:08I have no idea about guns.
18:10I just call a gun a gun.
18:12But he then goes on to say that this handgun
18:17was a natural polished metal or silver.
18:20Now, this is really interesting
18:22because I also have the statements taken from all the witnesses
18:28who were inside the restaurant at the time of Shamal's murder.
18:31But just reading from the top down, you know, black and shiny,
18:35dark grey, gun metal grey, black chunky and heavy, black matte,
18:40dark coloured, grey grey, black black, heavy solid, black and dark.
18:45William then changes this part of his statement.
18:49And he's now saying that the gun wasn't highly polished or silver.
18:55That it was now dark grey.
18:57That it's like a natural polished metal or silver.
19:01Why I said that? I'm not sure why he said that.
19:07I was just, that's just for something to say.
19:09Just, why he said a big Beretta?
19:10Like I said, I have no idea why he said that.
19:12And it was just something that came to my mind at the time.
19:16I thought, OK, why he said that at all?
19:19Which one is it? A handgun? Beretta? Firearm?
19:23It sounds to me extremely convenient.
19:26And it sounds to me like someone who has been fed their lines.
19:31That looked like he handled a firearm before.
19:34How exactly does William Grant know how you handle a Beretta?
19:38My name's George Thompson. I did my time as a detective.
19:49I've recently retired from a long time in criminal defence work.
19:55A criminal defence investigator is a person who assists a solicitor
20:00in the preparation of a defence case.
20:02The main witness in this case, Willie Grant, made great attempts to avoid me.
20:13Time and time again we would make appointments to see him
20:17and he just wouldn't turn up.
20:19He was always very, very evasive.
20:22I didn't feel like there were any particular red flags in relation to it.
20:27It had the feel of someone who had seen something,
20:30hadn't told anyone and effectively had decided they needed to get it off their chest.
20:39But there was another witness who police had spoken to
20:42who was also going to be damaging to Michael Ross's case.
20:48This is Scapa Beach.
20:50In June 1993, a year before Shamel's murder,
20:54Michael's walking here with his then-girlfriend.
20:57They've been going out for three years.
20:58After the shooting, she gives a statement to police
21:02that Michael tells her a secret.
21:04He tells her that he had a gun with him.
21:07While his dad was way on business,
21:10Michael found the key for Eddie's gun cabinet
21:13and he took one out of it.
21:16It seems pretty damning, to be honest,
21:19because now we've got his former girlfriend
21:22saying that he also had access to his dad's guns.
21:24At the High Court in Glasgow, the trial has begun of the man accused of murdering a waiter in an Orkney restaurant almost 14 years ago.
21:4229-year-old Michael Ross is pleading not guilty.
21:46Before I went to trial, obviously myself and my wife are discussing things like, should we get divorced?
21:52So that she doesn't get affected by things too much, so that she can try and live her own life.
21:56I'd seen my dad sent to prison and, to my mind, wrongfully convicted.
22:06At that point, I had no control on my life.
22:09All thought was of me going away and not being there for my life and my kids anymore.
22:15Couldn't have believed that I'd gone to this state that was nerve-wracking for both of us.
22:26And we got to speak to Michael every morning.
22:30And he seemed quite confident initially.
22:33When the judge gave me a better lip.
22:38Who was the prosecutor?
22:40Ryan McClecky.
22:43You can tell him I think of him every night.
22:46One of the difficulties I had in prosecuting this case is that I had to persuade a jury that a 15-year-old boy at the time had walked into a restaurant, shot somebody from point-blank range, murdered him, walked out again.
23:09Willie Grant saw Michael Ross with a gun coming out of a cubicle in a nearby toilet on the night of the shooting.
23:20We had no idea as to whether he would be a fantastic witness or a terrible witness.
23:27William Grant, his evidence didn't appear to be overly convincing.
23:32There are problems with the corroboration of his story, or the lack of corroboration of his story, I think.
23:40This afternoon, Mr Grant was cross-examined by Donald Finlay, QC for the defence.
23:44Mr Finlay said to Mr Grant, it wasn't Michael Ross you saw in the Kiln Corner toilets that night.
23:50Could that be right? Very possibly, it wasn't, said Mr Grant.
23:56William Grant goes on to tell the court that the reason he was in Kirkwall was to compete in a snooker competition at the Masonic Lodge, with a detective in the case.
24:05I have in front of me the actual court transcripts from Michael Ross's trial, and his defence QC, Donald Finlay, explores how William Grant was able to recognise and identify that it was Michael Ross in Kiln Corner toilets.
24:25He asks William Grant, if it might have been at a Masonic meeting, they might have suggested the name of Michael Ross.
24:35Grant replies, very possibly.
24:38So essentially, what William Grant has just done is just admitted to the court that somebody in the Masonic Lodge has possibly given him Michael's name.
24:49And that's just wild. I feel like I'm watching a courtroom drama.
24:52He was closely involved with the Masonic Lodge. The detective sergeant, one of the main witnesses in the case, he came from the same Lodge.
25:06I've always been of a view that any police officer should not allow to be a member of a Freemasons group.
25:13Rumours or allegations remain all they are, but the issue I suppose arises is, was William Grant influenced?
25:22There's something that has potential to lead to a miscarriage of justice.
25:26I have heard that people reckon that police told me what to say and I just said I just went along with them and they basically rotted for me. That is totally untrue.
25:44It had been put to grant as well that the police couldn't find any CCTV footage that could confirm his presence in the town and I don't think he could really explain how that could be the case.
25:52I certainly haven't seen any evidence that he actually was in Corkwell that night.
25:57I was just so stressed out. I just, I was so just, I was just shouting like a leaf. I was just, oh, it was just, I just found it too much.
26:07How did they even appear as a witness when he was so discredited? He was destroyed. Absolutely shredded in a courtroom.
26:15No, I was not lying. I was just being asked so many questions in such a short time.
26:21It was just like, oh, it was panic. Panic and just, I, I, I'd mind I would hurt his reason. Just pump, thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.
26:31I think his answers change regularly because for the most part he didn't actually know what the answer was.
26:37I was trying to do the right thing. I didn't muck it up. Something I, something I would never do. If I can say that I, I didn't make it up, no.
26:47His evidence was just the icing on the cake, I suppose, rather than being the building blocks of the evidence.
27:00Despite the flaws in William Grant's testimony being drawn out under cross-examination by the defence, the case against Michael Ross continued.
27:13Michael Ross was charged with Mr. Mahmood's murder. Now he has pled not guilty to this and has lodged a special defence of alibi.
27:23During the trial, Michael Ross's special defence is the plea of alibi. When Shamal was shot at around 7.15pm, Michael says he was a mile away talking to two friends from cadets.
27:34Now this is critical to Michael Ross's innocence, so I want to examine this.
27:41This is the route that Michael says that he takes that evening.
27:47Now, Michael says that he arrives here at around 7.10pm on the night of the murder.
27:54After my dinner, I'd taken a cycle into town. And as I've been cycling out the area, I've seen Hayden. And then, as I spoke to Hayden, the other lasses come running away.
28:18Just a four or just after serving the court, I think it was at night. Just a brief, brief conversation.
28:30Let's examine Michael Ross's version of events.
28:33We're in East Abista State. So, the Mumetaz restaurant is about a mile in that direction. And about under four miles over there is Michael Ross's house.
28:50So, Michael stops right here. He says he speaks to two friends from cadets, two 14-year-olds.
28:57He says the boy he chats to from the garden opposite, and then the girl comes running out to meet him from over there by these garages.
29:08He says that he's speaking to the cadets about a fight he had the day before with another cadet, and that the boy wants to see his cut and his bruised knuckles.
29:16And I mean, 14, 15, a fight would have been big news. So, of course, you're going to want to talk about it.
29:24Michael gave us an alibi, which he gave us for every interview we had in relation to the murder, saying he had been in Pap Daly State speaking to two named people.
29:42The police were asking him what route he took on his bike. He mentioned the fact that he had heard the sirens.
29:49The police were asking him what route he took on his bike. He mentioned the fact that he had heard the sirens.
29:55The first thing I knew was Eddie phoning me at work to say there's been a shooting, and the boys are in town.
30:16on their bikes. I think he was maybe home by the time I got home, which would have been 9 o'clock-ish maybe, or just before.
30:37I want to hear that bit again.
30:39That alibi was investigated by the police, and neither of the people who he named indicated that they had seen Michael on that particular night.
31:04They were quite categorical that they had not been speaking to him that night.
31:11Michael still maintained that that was the case. They must be mistaken.
31:19I think it was something like a 12-mile round trip. The cycle was for no purpose.
31:24He'd spent two minutes speaking to people, and then cycled all the way back.
31:29What I thought was perhaps significant about the alibi was how far away from the centre of Kirkwall that it put him.
31:42That it was, if you like, designed to make it impossible for him to have been in the centre of Kirkwall at the time.
31:48Michael says that he saw the two cadets around 7pm, yet both cadets say they didn't see him.
32:00But I've discovered a document that tells a very different story.
32:04This statement was given in 2008 by the cadet Michael claimed to have seen on the night of the murder.
32:14And it completely contradicted what he'd said to the police in 1994.
32:19Listen to this.
32:20My recollection of the interview in the car was that they, that's the police, were very keen to get me to see I had not seen Michael Ross.
32:34And there's more.
32:35It was clear in my mind that I should confirm that I did see Michael that night, when I was cutting grass and that I did speak to him.
32:44I think that it was the night of the murder.
32:48I need to speak to the person who took this statement.
32:51Michael was keen for us to trace this guy and take a statement from him as to the night of the murder.
33:03He says that it was clear in my mind that I should confirm that I did see Michael that night.
33:10And that I did speak to him.
33:12I'm confused about what day I did see him.
33:14I definitely did see him and speak to him one night.
33:18I think it was the night of the murder.
33:23I did this, but I didn't believe what was said.
33:27I put a note at the end of this.
33:29The young man who obviously dislikes and distrusts the police and seems eager to assist the client.
33:36He could be easily led or influenced either way.
33:39So this sheds a whole new light on Michael's alibi.
33:45Or does it?
33:47Did you believe that H saw Michael on the night of the alibi?
33:52No.
33:54No.
33:56You don't think Michael was there at night?
33:58We're there as defence investigators.
34:02That doesn't mean to say we want to get him off at any, any cost.
34:07He's trying to help Michael.
34:10That's what he's trying to do.
34:12This happens all the time.
34:14I think he cycled that route, like what time did he do it at?
34:20I know you've never given your opinion.
34:23Do you think Michael killed Shemal?
34:24Yeah.
34:25You think he did?
34:26I think he did.
34:27I think he did.
34:28I think he did.
34:29What makes you think that information that we've got?
34:30I went to England to trace a witness who had been there on the night and we got a statement from that person.
34:43And based on that statement, yeah, I think. I think he did. I can't, I can't discuss. I can't discuss him. And that's all I could say.
34:57This is incredible. So Michael's own defence investigator now believes that Michael killed Shemal.
35:04Although he clearly feels unable to explain what the evidence is.
35:05In a case that is continually thrown up surprises, this must be the biggest one yet.
35:07I think he did.
35:08I think he did.
35:09I think he did.
35:10I can't, I can't discuss.
35:11I can't discuss him.
35:12I can't discuss him.
35:13And that's it. That's all I could say.
35:14So Michael's own defence investigator now believes that Michael killed Shemal.
35:22Although he clearly feels unable to explain what the evidence is.
35:26In a case that is continually thrown up surprises, this must be the biggest one yet.
35:44I just couldn't believe it.
35:51I was in the court.
35:53You phoned me.
35:56Well, I think you'd phone Colin to say, go home and sit with mum.
36:03It was an awful moment.
36:07Has justice been done?
36:12This morning, a war hero.
36:14Tonight, a convicted racist murderer.
36:17Michael Ross has been found guilty of shooting dead Shamsuddin Mahmud, a waiter at an Indian
36:22restaurant in 1994.
36:29Michael was, of course, convicted at Glasgow High Court.
36:34Just after the jury gave its verdict, Michael did something that for many would be a far more
36:41simple and powerful demonstration of his guilt.
36:47As the verdict was handed down in court, there were astonishing scenes as the soldier made a bid for freedom.
36:53As the judge addressed Michael Ross, he escaped the attention of his prison officers and suddenly leapt from the dock.
36:59There were audible gasps in the court as he headed first towards the jury box and then outer side door.
37:05He made it as far as this fire exit before police officers managed to detain him.
37:11Right.
37:12I've been a journalist for quite a long time, but I've never come across anything like that happening.
37:23When the verdict came down as guilty, it was just a real shock to my system.
37:27The automatic flight reaction to the situation just kicked in.
37:32So that's why I ended up jumping the dock and trying to get a run away.
37:36But Michael Ross's plans that day didn't end there.
37:42This seems to be the escape route Ross was hatching.
37:46After breaking out from the court, it appears he planned to head north.
37:50And it was to peer to the car park of this Tesco, in fact, that it stopped.
37:55Michael Ross was heading to pick up a hire car, which he dumped here some days previous.
37:59In his boot, a cache of weaponry.
38:02Was he planning to use this in order to kill again?
38:06In the boot, police discovered a loaded scorpion machine pistol ready to fire,
38:12which Michael had smuggled in the back of a TV when he returned from serving in Kosovo.
38:16They also discovered 545 rounds of ammunition, a grenade and more.
38:22Would he have gone on a killing spree in Glasgow?
38:25Would he head back to the highlands and target anybody in the north?
38:29I don't know.
38:30I'll never know what's going through Michael's mind.
38:33But it certainly would be no good,
38:35because you wouldn't do any good with an arsenal like that.
38:38It's not for any good purpose, is it?
38:40You're not going to go and live rough with grenades and machine guns, are you?
38:51I just thought, oh God, dear God, Michael.
38:54It was desperation, in my opinion.
38:56At that point in time, he's at the end of his tether, basically, you know.
39:01The press made a big thing,
39:04thinking that I was some sort of threat to the public at that time,
39:08because of the weapons found in the car.
39:11I was a service soldier.
39:14I had regular access to assault rifles, pistols, machine guns, sight rifles.
39:19At no point was there any risk or threat to the public.
39:24I mean, the thing, thinking behind, going away and living away in the Highlands
39:29isn't it and stuff.
39:30I mean, the reality of this situation is,
39:32I probably would have been caught fairly quickly as well.
39:34Michael made things extremely difficult for himself.
39:39The issue it comes back to, does it prove the guilt?
39:42Does his mindset at that time point to his mindset when he was 15?
39:47It doesn't prove anything at all.
39:49Where was the actual evidence that he had walked into that restaurant that day
39:58and committed that crime?
40:00There was evidence that it was somebody who was of a similar height to Michael Ross.
40:06There was evidence it was somebody of a similar build to Michael Ross.
40:10He didn't match the descriptions of the killer.
40:13The information in the case was shoehorned to fit the crime.
40:18There was evidence that it was somebody who was wearing a balaclava.
40:22We eventually homed it down to be Michael.
40:24Lots of us in Cadets had balaclavas.
40:28It was a shooting with a handgun.
40:31We knew there was evidence that Michael Ross had access to handguns.
40:34Well, what kind of a gun was it?
40:36Nobody knows to this day exactly what it was.
40:39I looked at it on the floor.
40:41I could see, just by a glance, there was a 9mm parambellum round.
40:45Then he spoke to me and he said,
40:47I have a box of 9mm bullets.
40:50I thought I was being of help.
40:52Somebody came up with a toilet.
40:54I knew it was Michael's face.
40:56Well, I believe this to be the gunman.
40:59That's the guy.
41:01And that's not Michael Ross.
41:03Calm, cool, no sweat.
41:06Which is what you needed me to walk into arrest and kill somebody at point blank range.
41:10Every single aspect of the killer's clothing, demeanour, walk, fitted the description of Michael Ross.
41:20How unlucky can one person be?
41:23How could this have been a 15 year old boy?
41:26It's not the kind of crime that is committed by a 15 year old boy in Orkney.
41:30A man with a mask on came in.
41:32I thought he was into shooting everyone.
41:35As we took the mask off, we were all staring at Michael Ross.
41:42We were a normal family.
41:54We knew he didn't do it.
41:56I never thought we would be in a situation like this.
42:02Because Michael was brought up to understand right and wrong.
42:08And always told to tell the truth.
42:11And oh, it just had many cry to myself.
42:15But the support that we've had from neighbours and family and friends has just been unreal.
42:27I can't say for certain whether Michael Ross killed Shamsud in the mood or not.
42:40In the end, you're left with a lot of devastated lives.
42:45One man whose life has been brutally cut short.
42:49Another man who's been in prison for his life, who still claims he's innocent.
42:54And beyond that, the many others whose lives have been torn apart by that one minute in 1994 that changed everything.
43:07Sometimes, we can stop by saying the same thing if they enjoyed it.
43:08It's worse.
43:09Because?
43:11A woman who's infected.
43:11It's been a very dangerous person in prison for years.
43:12I can't tell you, but I didn't have any of any of them.
43:13Two man in prison for years.
43:14Two man in prison.
43:15But the moment is dead, the only reason he has been torn apart.
43:16Two man in prison for years.
43:17There, there, there's no lie to be a good friend.
43:18One man in prison for years.
43:19A man in prison for years.
43:20Take care of all.
43:21For years, it's a siento pain.
43:23There's a Zeitrains for years.
43:25And when it's a doubtful and a woman who died,
43:26The only man who died,
43:27And now we've been a busy community today,
43:30Transcription by CastingWords
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