Gunman loses appeal over conviction

A "MURDER Inc" gunman who was jailed for 13 years has lost a bid to overturn his conviction for taking part in a 2008 plot to kill a businessman.

Appeal judges said they were unable to see any misdirection at the trial of Francis Doris, 41, amounting to a miscarriage of justice.

The Lord Justice General, Lord Hamilton, told Doris at the Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday that his challenge against his conviction over conspiring with business consultant Martin Black to murder Kevin Martin was refused.

Doris, formerly of Albert Street, Edinburgh, and Black, 34, who was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment, were earlier found guilty of the plot at the High Court in Edinburgh.

But lawyers acting for Doris went to the appeal court claiming that jurors at the trial were not properly directed to look at the evidence related to Doris separately from that linked to his co-accused.

Defence counsel Margaret Scott QC was also critical that the trial judge Norman Ritchie QC did not specifically direct the jury in relation to evidence which might suggest some kind of conspiracy between Black and another.

Doris and Black were also found guilty of firearms offences.