Man jailed for gangland murder of drug dealer appeals conviction

STV

A man jailed for life for gunning down a drug dealer outside his home is appealing his conviction after protesting his innocence for nine years.

William Gage was found guilty of murdering Justin McAlroy by shooting him five times at his home in Cambuslang, South Lanarkshire.

Several concerns over the strength of the conviction have been raised, while Gage and his legal team have fought since he was jailed in 2004 to prove his conviction was a miscarriage of justice.

Although he had initially been unsuccessful in appealing his conviction, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission ordered the Court of Criminal Appeal to look at the case once again.

On Tuesday, his appeal began at the court and is scheduled to last four days.

Gage, originally from Hillhead, Glasgow, is serving a minimum of 20 years behind bars for the murder of millionaire's son Mr McAlroy. In March 2002, 30-year-old Mr McAlroy was killed outside his home in what police believed was retribution over a £50,000 drug debt he owed.

During the original trial, McAlroy's wife Tracey told the court she would "never forget the eyes" before identifying Gage in court as the killer she saw from her house.

She had initially told police she only glimpsed the killer as he ran away. Witnesses at the trial described the hitman as being 5ft 10in with a round face and cropped hair, but Gage is 6ft 2in, thin and had long hair at the time.

The gunman was said to be wearing a padded jacket but it was the discovery of a thin cagoule with Gage's DNA on it that helped convict him. The cagoule was found in a partially burnt-out white Saab found abandoned in Easterhouse less than an hour after the murder. It had been sold by Gage a couple of months earlier.

When the review ordered the appeal to be re-examined, it said: "The absence of specific directions to the jury regarding the dock identification amounts to a misdirection and may have given rise to a miscarriage of justice" in relation to the evidence from Ms McAlroy.

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