Bragging sealed hitman's fate: Drug addict 'moll' gave the game away

Fidgeting nervously next to him was Martin Black, a property developer who, in fear of his life, had hired Doris as a bodyguard only weeks before.

And sitting in the back seat, former vice girl Claire Lizanec, growing bored at the long wait, cooked heroin on some tin foil and inhaled another deep hit.

The trio had spent most of the last couple of days together, the 28-year-old mother-of-two there at Doris' behest as a drug buddy to whom he could boast of his murder plot.

Outside the hotel sat Black's silver Volkswagen Touareg – as bait to lure shady businessman Kevin Martin. Their intended victim was hunting Black over an alleged 100,000 debt.

The pair had been alerted to Martin's plan to find Black by planting a tracer in his car. So they in turn plotted to use the car to lure him into an ambush.

Inside the Mercedes, weapons assembled by Doris and Black were ready to carry out a brutal murder. Their arsenal included a Luger-style handgun, an array of knives and Doris' "weapon of choice", a homemade gun complete with silencer.

Taking an arrogant pride in his reputation as a gangland enforcer, Doris boasted of carrying out seven shootings and started to sign off his text messages, "Murder Inc" – in reference to the Mafia contract killers responsible for hundreds of deaths in New York.

But arrogance would be his downfall.

Their target would not show up that day. Instead, Doris, himself in a drug-induced haze, made the foolhardy decision to let his "moll" continue to tag along until she stole one of his guns to sell for heroin in Wester Hailes.

As Doris tried to hunt her down, threatening to kill her for the betrayal, Lizanec in desperation turned to the police.

On hearing her full story, including Doris' boasts of a murder plot, detectives swept into action. Armed police stormed the Colinton Road flat where Doris and Black were staying, detaining them for conspiracy to murder.

It was a dispute between former business associates Black – who charged 175 an hour as a business consultant – and Martin which spiralled into the plot to kill.

Martin – who told police he has interests in diamond mines in Sierra Leone and imports organic coconuts from Bangladesh, and admitted in court tax evasion and trading while bankrupt – claimed Black owed him tens of thousands of pounds and was determined to get his money.

Property developer Charles McKinlay was also caught up in the battle, fielding dozens of calls from Mr Martin as he tried to find Black – a man with a 1 million property portfolio – and his money.

It was McKinlay who Martin entrusted to place the tracking device in Black's car, but McKinlay double-crossed Martin and instead handed the mobile phone-sized device to Black.

Worried for the safety of his estranged wife and child, as well as his own, Black hired notorious gangland enforcer Doris to protect him in June 2008. But his role as bodyguard quickly escalated to killer-for-hire as he agreed to murder Martin for cash.

During that month, Doris and Black dreamed up their plot and built up a stash of weapons, along with paper suits and latex gloves to foil police forensics.

It was a chance encounter with Ms Lizanec in a Leith Walk pub which would eventually lead to their plot unravelling.

Doris struck up a conversation with the pretty 28-year-old former escort and soon asked her if she could score them cocaine. He would later that evening find an easier way to secure them drugs, heading to a dealer's house in Wester Hailes and robbing him of crack cocaine.

The trio went back to the Colinton Road flat where Doris and Lizanec smoked crack. Once high, Doris started boasting of their plans.

Putting on a pair of blue latex gloves, Doris dragged two holdalls out from behind the sitting room couch and began to proudly show-off the contents, including the Luger-style handgun.

His prized possession he told her was his homemade gun, a strange looking pole-shaped weapon, one-and-a-half feet long with a six-inch silencer on the end.

The motley collection also included balaclavas, gloves, forensic suits, a stun gun and a crossbow.

Still taking hits from the crack pipe, Doris boasted of having "shot at 11 people and hit seven" with his favourite, makeshift firearm. All the while, Black sat quietly, saying little as he held the crossbow in his lap.

Warming to his theme, Doris told Lizanec he was getting 30,000 from a "guy called Charlie" for a hit on someone known as The Butcher, a figure who drove a black BMW with tinted windows. He said the man was threatening to kill Black and he was going to get him first.

After allowing Lizanec to handle the guns, he passed her a tea towel to wipe any fingerprints from the collection.

The next day, Lizanec was still in tow when Doris and Black drove to Loanhead in Midlothian to the headquarters of Scottish Quality Meats, a firm where McKinlay was a director.

They picked up a red Mercedes, which Doris said would be used to get to and from Martin's killing. A can of petrol was stashed in the back to "blow it up" afterwards.

The car was later reported missing by one of the firm's managers, but by then the number plates had been switched with one from another stolen car.

Next they loaded their weapons and the rest of their killing kit, including balaclavas and protective clothes, into the Mercedes, ready for action.

On 1 July, Black drove the Touareg carrying the tracking device to the Royal Ettrick Hotel before joining Doris and Lizanec in the Mercedes parked across the street, but their target failed to show and the men gave up for the day.

But on 3 July, Lizanec and her friend, Connie Comrie, 25, another heroin and crack addict, were picked up by Black at a Shell garage in Wester Hailes and taken back to Colinton Road.

Another hazy evening of drink and drugs passed, but waking early on the morning of 4 July, Lizanec and Comrie took a dangerous decision to rob the two men who had shared their secrets with them. Both were withdrawing from heroin and needed their next fix.

The pair went through the holdalls and took a Rolex watch, a cheque, a camera, Rayban sunglasses, and most dangerously, the Luger-style gun and flagged down a taxi. The fleeing women planned to sell the items to buy more drugs, even trying to flog the Rolex, which turned out to be a fake, and camera to the taxi driver who turned them down.

Dropped off in Wester Hailes, the women were able to secure around 250 for the gun, and went off in search of heroin.

Back in Colinton Road, a furious Doris realised he had been robbed and called Lizanec's mobile, threatening to kill her if the gun was not returned immediately.

Lizanec sent a text to Doris at 11:47am on 4 July which read: "Frankie, I'm with Connie. Thing is on it's way to Ireland. I don't know what to do."

Another sent at 12:24pm read: "We sold it. Can we pay you the cash back. It's on its way to Ireland. I know it was a mistake. I'm sorry."

Terrified, Lizanec hurried round to the Wester Hailes home of Comrie's father, the following day, and told her friend about the threatening calls from Doris.

Mr Comrie overheard the women's conversation and told them they had no choice but to contact police.

Officers arrived in the early hours of Saturday morning to collect the women and take them to Wester Hailes police station, where detectives were called in and the women were interviewed. As their story unfolded, warrants were quickly secured to search Black's home on Colinton Road.

An armed response unit arrived outside his front door and officers carrying Heckler & Koch machine guns took position. The home was raided and Doris and Black were found inside and taken to separate police stations, Doris to St Leonard's and Black to Gayfield Square.

Three sets of car keys were found for the vehicles parked outside. Inside the Mercedes was a knife and hammer, in the Toureag a samurai sword and three knives, and in the Land Rover, a holdall containing pairs of balaclavas and masks, a gun and 39 rounds of ammunition.

Finally, on 7 July, Black broke to police and admitted that he was in fear of his life from Kevin Martin, who he worried might target his family.

Now detectives began to piece together the story which would see Doris and Black found guilty of conspiracy to murder.