Shot teen 'peppered' with holes

An ambulance technician has told a court how she and a paramedic battled to save a teenager hit in a drive-by shooting in Paisley in August 2007.

Jane Griffiths was giving evidence at the trial of three men accused of murdering 18-year-old Andrew Devlin outside Suzy Q's snooker club.

She said the victim's back was "peppered" with gunshot wounds.

Anthony Collins, 30, Richard McCondochie, 25, and John Burke, 28, all deny murdering Mr Devlin.

The High Court in Glasgow heard that Jane Griffiths and a colleague received a call telling them to attend a shooting outside the Paisley snooker club.

Mrs Griffiths, 50, said: "We gave drugs to try to start his heart for 15 to 20 minutes. He was completely unresponsive. There was no improvement in his condition. We then decided to move him to hospital rapidly to see what could be done there."

The court heard that Andrew Devlin, who was attending a friend's 21st birthday party, died in hospital from his injuries.

"His back was peppered with small holes, presumably from gunshot wounds"

Mrs Griffiths said: "There wasn't any obvious injury. We turned him over to see where the injury was.

"His back was peppered with small holes, presumably from gunshot wounds.

"In all likelihood the trauma inside was such that nothing we did would be effective."

The court also heard from pathologist Dr John Clark who said Andrew Devlin died from massive blood loss after being being hit in the back by about 250 shotgun pellets.

The jury was shown a picture of Andrew's back which was peppered with hundreds of small holes in a circular pattern.

Dr Clark said: "The pellets had gone through the rib cage and peppered both lungs and the back of the heart."

"There were multiple holes in the heart and lungs and he died from internal blood loss from a single shotgun injury."

'Three shots'

The pathologist said that apart from the shotgun injuries there were no other significant injuries.

He also told the court it was unusual for a shotgun fired from a distance to cause fatal injuries.

Earlier, firearms expert, Martin Connolly, 45, told the court that Mr Devlin was hit from nine to 11 metres away.

He said he examined the teenager's wound during the post-mortem examination and said it was consistent with him being hit by a single shot.

Mr Connolly added that three shots had been fired during the incident.

He said the first shot struck the wall beside the club, the second Mr O'Doherty and the third hit Mr Devlin.

Mr Collins, Mr McCondochie and Mr Burke, all from Glasgow, also deny attempting to defeat the ends of justice by concealing a shotgun and setting fire to a Peugeot 307 estate car between 3 August, 2007 and 20 June last year, and firearms charges.

Mr Collins and Mr McCondochie have lodged special defences.

Co-accused Laura Kinnear, 29, from Govan in Glasgow, denies firearms charges between 15 and 30 October, 2007.

The trial before Lord Malcolm continues.

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