Waiter's killer 'like a hitman'

Donald Findlay QC argued the case for accused Michael Ross

The shooting of a waiter in an Orkney restaurant 14 years ago had the hallmarks of a professional hit, a murder trial jury has been told.

Soldier Michael Ross, 29, denies shooting Shamsuddin Mahmood, 26, dead in Kirkwall in 1994.

Donald Findlay QC asked in his closing defence speech if such a killing could have been carried out by Mr Ross, who was 15 at the time.

Judge Lord Hardie has started directing the jury. He will continue on Thursday.

Mr Findlay said on the second day of his closing speech at the High Court in Glasgow: "Witnesses in the restaurant speak of impressions of a hitman.

"It has all the hallmarks of what one would expect from a professional hit. It is as close up and personal as you can get.

"There are no nerves, anxiety or fear on the part of the shooter. Is that consistent with a 15-year-old boy?"

'Up close'

Mr Findlay said: "This is not to do with someone having the ability to pick up a gun, load it and pull the trigger. It is one matter to shoot at a piece of wood with a target on it.

"It is a very, very different thing to take the life of a human being. This is not the case of one person shooting at another. This is one person going into a restaurant with a gun in order to kill another human being."

He added: "Not a single solitary witness suggested that it would occur to them this might be someone in their mid teens. The whole picture is of someone at ease, someone totally in control."

Waiter Shamsuddin Mahmood was killed by a single shot

The defence QC told the jury: "You are supposed to believe someone at 15 would have the nerves, the guts, to walk in and execute another human being."

During his speech to the jury Mr Findlay accused the Crown of "scraping the bottom of the barrel" as far as evidence was concerned.

And he said that William Grant - a crucial Crown witness who claimed he saw Mr Ross in the toilets with a gun about the time of the shooting and came forward 12 years later - was "a self-confessed liar".

The prosecution earlier said that the case against Mr Ross was a compelling jigsaw.

In his closing speech, advocate depute Brian McConnachie QC said the evidence against Mr Ross was circumstantial but enough to convict.

He said it was "savage and pointless" and "a cold-blooded assassination".

Mr Ross, now of Inverness, is accused of entering the Mumutaz restaurant in Kirkwall with his face masked and shooting Mr Mahmood in the head.

Mr Ross 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 jury will retire after being addressed by Lord Hardie.