Murder trial witness escapes prison term

Published on Monday 23 February 2009 22:51

A RELUCTANT witness at the trial of a man who murdered a waiter on Orkney avoided a jail sentence yesterday for contempt of court.

Cator Moyes, 33, had given police a statement at the time of Shamsuddin Mahmood's murder in 1994 that Michael Ross held racist views. However, at Ross's trial last June, Moyes went back on the statement and claimed it was inaccurate.

Ross, 30, a former Black Watch sergeant, was convicted of shooting the Bangladeshi waiter at a restaurant in Kirkwall and was ordered to serve at least 25 years of a life sentence.

Yesterday, Moyes was taken before the trial judge, Lord Hardie, at the High Court in Edinburgh to be sentenced for contempt of court. David Taylor, defending, said Moyes, of Murrayburn Park, Edinburgh, was of limited intellect and had tried to abide by his oath as a witness to tell the truth.

Lord Hardie said he had decided on "an unusual course" of placing Moyes on probation for two years and ordering him to do 200 hours' community work.