Gun accused 'never in restaurant'

Shamsuddin Mahmood was shot in the restaurant in 1994

A murder accused told police he was out cycling when a waiter was shot dead in a restaurant on Orkney 14 years ago, a court has heard.

Michael Ross, 29, denies shooting Shamsuddin Mahmood, 26, in the head at the Mumutaz Indian Tandoori restaurant, Kirkwall, in 1994.

A former police officer told the High Court in Glasgow that Mr Ross said he had never been in the restaurant.

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

Angus Chisholm, who was a detective inspector in 1994 and is now retired from the police, said he conducted taped interviews with Mr Ross just months after the shooting.

The interviews were played to the jury and they heard Mr Ross say: "I have never been inside the Indian restaurant."

He told police that on the night on 2 June, 1994, he had gone out cycling.

Met friends

He said he met two friends - Ingrid Watson and Hayden Hourston - about the time of the shooting in Kirkwall and briefly chatted to them.

Mr Chisholm told Brian McConnachie QC, for the Crown, that he interviewed Ingrid Watson, said to have since died, three times and on each occasion she denied seeing Mr Ross that night.

During the interview Mr Chisholm says to Mr Ross: "You're saying you were sure you were there and they are saying you weren't. Someone is lying."

Mr Ross replied: "It's not me. I was definitely there."

He said that when he got home he took the dogs for a walk.

When he got back he said his mother had arrived home and told him someone had been shot in Kirkwall.

Mr Ross is accused of entering the restaurant with his face masked and shooting Mr Mahmood in the head.

Special defence

He 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.

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

Mr Ross is also accused of crouching behind a wall and trees in a mask and committing a breach of the peace on May 19, 1994, 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, before Lord Hardie, continues.