Second appeal for Cambuslang hitman nine years on

A MAN who has protested his innocence since being convicted of murdering a millionaire’s son almost ten years ago returned to court yesterday for a second appeal.

William Gage, 40, claims he did not shoot Justin McAlroy five times outside his home in Cambuslang, South Lanarkshire. A trial heard the “hit” had been ordered over a £50,000 drug debt.

A few days before his death, Mr McAlroy, 30, and his father, Tommy, a builder and then a major shareholder in Motherwell’s Dalziel Golf and Country Club, had attended a Labour party-backed fundraising function at the club with senior politicians, including former First Minister Jack McConnell, former Home Secretary Dr John Reid, and Lanarkshire MP Frank Roy.

Gage, nicknamed “Tiler”, of Hillhead, Glasgow, was ordered to serve at least 20 years of a life sentence for murder. He lost an appeal in 2006, but petitioned the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, which investigates possible miscarriages of justice. It referred the case back to the Court of Criminal Appeal.

Before that hearing began in Edinburgh yesterday, Gage’s solicitor, Aamer Anwar, said: “From the very beginning, William Gage has protested his innocence. It has been nine long, hard years of struggle for him as he has fought the system. He hopes that justice is done.”

The murder was carried out in March 2002. Mr McAlroy had a conviction for drug dealing.

The hearing is expected to last four days and the judges, Lord Hamilton, the Lord Justice-General, sitting with Lords Reed, Carloway, Mackay and Nimmo Smith, will give their ruling later.