Sister of man beaten to death tells of her relief at judge's ruling

Published on Wednesday 22 April 2009 09:46

THE sister of a man beaten to death in an Edinburgh pub today spoke of her relief that a bid for freedom by his killers had been thrown out by a judge.

Grant McDonald, 38, was kicked and punched to death at the Waverley Inn in Southhouse Broadway on May 7, 2005, in an attack which was caught on security cameras.

Billy Johnston and Charles Woolard, both 29 at the time, were jailed for life for murder but appealed against their convictions. Now Lord Reed has rejected their appeal bid and upheld the sentence which saw each man ordered to serve at least 12 years in the wake of the killing.

Margaret McDonald, 38, today said: "We are absolutely delighted. It is a big relief. The whole family was there, apart from my mum. She couldn't believe it at first when we told her and Grant's daughters are overwhelmed.

"Hopefully now we can move on. There has been a lot of grief. We have had this over our heads from day one and that's the end now. I feel like we can live again. They've got what they deserved."

Ms McDonald, of Prestonpans, is a mother of three boys and has named her ten-month-old Grant in memory of his uncle.

She and her brother Peter, 43, have been comforting her mother Patricia, who had to move from Southhouse Square to Portobello after the murder because Grant had lived across the road and it became too painful to face the constant reminder.

Lawyers for Johnston and Woolard argued during a two-day hearing at the Appeal Court in Edinburgh that the men had suffered a miscarriage of justice.

Johnston was convicted of punching the victim to the ground before repeatedly striking him on the head and body. His co-accused kicked Mr McDonald on the ground while he lay injured from the beating. They were convicted on the basis that their individual attacks meant they were both guilty of the victim's murder.

Among their grounds of appeal was that the jury was misdirected by the trial judge, and whether evidence relating to the cause of death was enough for a "reasonable" jury to find them guilty.

Their lawyers also contended the jury should have been directed that a conviction for attempted murder was an option.

In his written judgement, Lord Reed wrote: "According to expert evidence, it was impossible to single out any one of the blows as being the cause of death, or to exclude any of them.

"Even if the haemorrhage which was the mechanism of death had been sustained before the final blow was struck, subsequent blows increased the likelihood that the haemorrhage would prove to be fatal."

He added: "Although a conviction of attempted murder was legally possible, a jury was liable to have difficulty in understanding such a verdict in a situation where the victim had actually died."

Lord Reed rejected each of the grounds of appeal.

Ms McDonald said: "I've got three laddies and it was my fear that they were going to grow up with that; young people thinking it's okay to jump somebody and that you would get away with it. I hope the message goes out that they have to accept the consequences."