Miscarriage of justice man dies

Stuart Gair spent 11 years in prison after being wrongly convicted

A man who had a murder conviction quashed after protesting his innocence for 17 years has died.

Stuart Gair, 42, was cleared last year of killing Peter Smith, of Stirlingshire, after it was ruled he suffered a miscarriage of justice.

Mr Gair died on Tuesday in Edinburgh's Royal Infirmary after suffering a heart attack while talking to investigative journalist Donal MacIntyre on Friday.

He had been found guilty of stabbing Mr Smith to death in Glasgow in 1989.

Mr Gair denied committing the offence but was convicted by a majority verdict and sentenced to life imprisonment.

'Sharp pain'

He was freed on bail in 2000 before the case was referred to the Scottish Criminal Cases Review.

Lord Abernethy quashed the conviction after saying a failure to disclose witness statements to Mr Gair's lawyers deprived the defence of a "powerful argument" on identification.

John McManus of Miscarriages of Justice Scotland said Mr Gair had suffered a heart attack while talking to Mr MacIntyre during a chance meeting in Leith on Friday.

Mr McManus said: "Stuart introduced himself and explained to Donal who he was, they went back to Stuart's flat and whilst Stuart was chatting he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his neck, then collapsed suffering from a massive heart attack."

Mr McManus, who claimed Mr Gair had been the victim of one of Scotland's "most shameful miscarriages of justice," said a decision had been taken to switch off Mr Gair's life support machine on Tuesday afternoon.