Witness 'met gunman in toilets'

Shamsuddin Mahmood was shot dead 14 years ago

A man has told a murder trial how he came face-to-face with a gunman in an Orkney public toilet on the night a waiter was shot dead.

Michael Ross, 29, denies murdering 26-year-old Shamsuddin Mahmood at the Mumutaz restaurant in Kirkwall in 1994.

William Grant told the High Court in Glasgow he saw someone he believed may be Mr Ross coming out of a cubicle with a gun, wearing a balaclava or ski mask.

Mr Ross, of Inverness, was 15 at the time of the waiter's death in Kirkwall.

Mr Grant, 51, told prosecutor Brian McConnachie QC that he had been drinking in three Kirkwall pubs and decided to go to the toilets.

Mr Grant said that as he stood at a urinal he heard what he described as rustling coming from a cubicle.

I had an idea it was Michael Ross William Grant Witness

He said: "The cubicle door opened. I just turned my head around to my left. I saw a person coming out.

"He had a handgun in his hand. It looked quite shiny and clean. I was terrified. It gave me quite a shock. I just thought it was somebody playing about."

Mr Grant told the court that he did not say anything to the gunman.

He added: "The person went back into the cubicle and locked the door. I walked out.

"About 15 yards from the toilets I stopped and turned back towards the Kiln Corner. The person came out of the toilets walking up towards the lane."

He was asked: "Did you recognise him?"

'Quick glance'

Mr Grant said: "Yes. I had an idea it was Michael Ross."

He added: "It was such a quick glance, but what I saw I'm more or less definite."

Mr Grant said that he knew Mr Ross by sight from seeing him with his father, local police officer Eddie Ross.

He said he later found out there had been a shooting and someone had died.

He said he did not go to the police and added: "In my mind I was scared. I really wanted nothing to do with it at the time."

Pointed out

He was asked by Mr McConnachie if he could identify Mr Ross, and he pointed to the accused in the dock.

Under cross examination by Donald Findlay QC, Mr Grant was asked: "It wasn't Michael Ross you saw in Kiln Corner toilets that night, could that be right?"

He replied: "I do not know what to say."

Mr Findlay then said: "Answer truthfully and candidly."

Mr Grant told him: "Very possibly it was not."

Changing clothes

Mr Ross is also accused of attempting to defeat the ends of justice by changing his clothing and disposing of the weapon.

He is further charged with, while acting with others whose identities are unknown, committing a breach of the peace outside the Indian restaurant by shouting, swearing, uttering threats of violence and racist abuse.

The offence was allegedly committed between 3 May and 24 May, 1994.

Mr Ross is also accused of committing a breach of the peace on 19 May that year in Papdale Woods, Kirkwall.

He denies all charges and has lodged a special defence of alibi claiming he was nowhere near the Indian restaurant or Kirkwall town centre, but was cycling in another part of Orkney.

The trial continues.