Fiscal orders probe into prison death of double killer

A PROBE is to be held into the death of a double killer who escaped the hangman's noose.

Donald Forbes, 73, who killed a night watchman in the Capital, died in Inverclyde Royal Hospital in April 2008. Forbes, who had been branded Scotland's most dangerous man, was serving a 12-year sentence in Greenock Prison for drug dealing.

The procurator fiscal has ordered that a fatal accident inquiry should be held into his death. The inquiry will be held at Greenock Sheriff Court in March.

Forbes was sentenced to hang in 1958 for killing night watchman Allan Fisher, 66, at a fish factory in the Capital.

He bludgeoned Mr Fisher to death during a robbery at the factory. The watchman tried to defend himself with a bottle and Forbes claimed he was "totally berserk with drink". The killer was condemned to death, but his sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment.

Forbes was freed in l970 after serving 11 years and eight months, but only six weeks later he stabbed Charlie Gilroy, 22, to death in a Leith pub. A year later Forbes was branded Scotland's most dangerous man after escaping from the maximum security wing at Peterhead Prison.

He remained in prison until 1998 then enjoyed five years of freedom before returning to jail at the age of 68, when he was found guilty of dealing cocaine and cannabis worth 340,000 from his flat in Glasgow.