Jail cut for man who supplied murder gun

A MAN who supplied a gun used in a pub murder has had his minimum jail term cut from 19 years and six months to 17 years.

Bernard "Ben" Young, 23, stole the double-barrelled shotgun from a house where he was working as a roofer and he gave it to Jamie Bain.

In April 2006, Bain walked into the Marmion bar in Gracemount, Edinburgh and shot former boxer Alex McKinnon, 32, dead and left a second man, James Hendry, 27, seriously injured.

A trial heard that a row between Bain, 22, of Gilmerton Dykes Avenue, Edinburgh, and his girlfriend, Dionne Hendry, the injured man's cousin, had escalated into a bloody feud.

Bain was convicted of murder and attempted murder and jailed for life.

The judge ordered that he must serve at least 22 years before he could apply for parole.

A co-accused, Richard Cosgrove, 21, also of Gilmerton Dykes Avenue, who had gone with Bain into the pub, was convicted of the same charges and received a life sentence with a minimum of 20 years.

Young, of Southhouse Walk, Edinburgh, was also convicted of murder and attempted murder. A minimum period of 19 and a half years was set under his life sentence.

As well as supplying the gun, Young provided the silver, ice-hockey-type masks worn by Bain and Cosgrove, and acted as the pair's driver.

At an earlier hearing in the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh, Cosgrove's minimum term was cut to 16 years after the court accepted he had been terrified of Bain and had been threatened if he did not go along with the shooting plan.