Killers’ driver to face trial over knife found in cell

THE man convicted of being the “getaway driver” for the Marmion pub shootings is facing trial accused of having a home-made knife in his cell at Saughton Prison.

Bernard Young denied being in possession of the knife, and his lawyers hope that a forensic analysis of the weapon will show DNA traces from other people on it.

But the 25-year-old pleaded guilty at Edinburgh Sheriff Court yesterday to having a mobile phone and charger while serving his life sentence at the Edinburgh jail.

Young is serving a 17-year sentence for his role in the 2006 pub shootings.

The former roofer admitted having the phone and charger on July 1, but denied possessing the knife on May 19 last year.

Sheriff James Scott sentenced Young to three months’ imprisonment over the phone, and set a trial on the knife possession charge for April next year.

Young’s solicitor, Robbie Burnett, said that his client had voluntarily given guards the devices after being asked whether he was carrying any contraband. Mr Burnett said Young had already been punished by prison authorities after being caught with equipment.

He added that prison bosses had previously dealt with such discoveries internally, but now had a policy of reporting illegal finds to police.

Mr Burnett said that his client denied possessing the knife, adding that he expected a DNA analysis to show that other people had handled the weapon.

Jamie Bain, 27, was jailed for life for murdering ex- boxing champion Alex McKinnon, 32, and attempting to murder James Hendry, 27, in The Marmion pub in Captain’s Road, Gracemount, on April 22, 2006.

Bain, who blasted the two victims with a shotgun, was convicted alongside Richard Cosgrove, 28, who accompanied him into the bar, both men wearing ski masks.

Young was believed by the police to have supplied the shotgun and masks used by Bain and Cosgrove in the double shooting.

The father-of-two also drove the pair to the pub but fled the scene of the incident without them as the gunfire erupted.

Just weeks before being sentenced for the Marmion murder, Young was jailed for 30 months for carrying out a brutal attack with a baseball bat on 32-year-old James Archibald.

Mr Archibald was attacked outside his home at Myrtle Crescent in Bilston, Midlothian, in May 2006, and was left with a head wound which doctors treated with seven staples.

Just hours after carrying out the attack, Young was arrested outside his Edinburgh home by detectives investigating the shooting of Alex McKinnon.