'Assassins' who claimed they only shot bad men win cut in sentences

Two gangland gunmen who argued their murder sentences should be shorter because they shot "bad men" have won a cut in their record jail terms of 35 years.

Judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh rejected the plea by James McDonald, 37, and Raymond Anderson, 49, that murders with innocent victims deserved heavier punishment, but agreed that they should have five years taken off their "excessive" sentences.

The original terms had been the longest imposed in murder cases in Scotland - the ruling leaves 32 years as the record.

It was given to Thomas Smith, 27, a former soldier, for the sexual abuse and murders of a mother and her ten-year-old daughter in Cronberry, near Cumnock, Ayrshire, in 2009.

McDonald and Anderson join a number of other killers who will have to serve at least 30 years before they can apply for parole, including serial killer Peter Tobin and Malcolm Webster, who murdered his first wife in a staged car crash and tried to do the same to his second in New Zealand five years later.

In December 2006, two gunmen wearing "old men" masks entered the Applerow MOT centre in the Lambhill area of Glasgow, and opened fire.

At least 11 shots were fired. Michael Lyons, 21, died from a shot in the back, apparently inflicted while he was lying on the ground.

His cousin, Steven Lyons, 21, and a friend, Robert Pickett, 41, were seriously injured.

It was suspected the shootings had been part of a war between the notorious Daniel and Lyons crime families, although at a trial in 2008, the garage owner, David Lyons, insisted he knew of no reason why anyone would have wanted to inflict injury on him or any member of his family. A jury decided McDonald and Anderson, both of Glasgow, had been the gunmen and convicted them of charges of murder and attempted murder.

The trial judge, Lord Hardie, described it as "a cold-blooded, premeditated execution".

At the appeal court, Donald Findlay, QC, for McDonald, and Gordon Jackson, QC, for Anderson, argued that a 35-year sentence was excessive.

They said it was longer than sentences imposed in multiple-death cases - such as Andrew Walker, who shot dead three people in a robbery in 1985, who got 27 years, and Howard Wilson, who killed two police officers in 1969, who got 25 years.

The Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, received a 27-year punishment part - the minimum period to be served under life sentences which are mandatory for murder.

The lawyers also submitted that in the present case, the victims had not been wholly innocent. It was described by Mr Findlay as "two bad men shooting at three other bad men".

Lord Mackay, who heard the appeals with Lords Emslie and Marnoch, said that, serious though the case was, it could not be regarded as intrinsically more serious than the likes of those of Walker and Wilson.

"In our opinion, punishment parts of 30 years are sufficient to punish the two appellants and to impress upon others that such conduct will not be tolerated and will attract lengthy custodial sentences," he added.