Kriss Donald’s killer jailed for further six years

Daanish Zahid returned to the High Court in Glasgow. Picture: John Devlin

Daanish Zahid returned to the High Court in Glasgow more than a decade after he was jailed for life for the crime.

He was hauled back into the dock after lying to appeal judges to try to get freedom for Imran “Baldy” Shahid, the ringleader of the mob that abducted and killed the teenager in 2004.

The 31-year-old insisted Shahid was “innocent” and that another Glasgow-based Asian gang had been behind the murder.

Zahid claimed he had been threatened into silence and then revealed a string of texts supposedly naming the “real killers”.

But, judges dismissed the evidence – while also throwing out Shahid’s appeal – before ordering an investigation into the lies.

It lead to Zahid yesterday being jailed for a further six years after he admitted attempting to defeat the ends of justice.

Kriss’s mother, Angela, was in court to see again one of her son’s killers and screamed “Yes” as the sentence was passed. She then shouted: “Hope you die in jail.”

The six-year sentence will begin only once Zahid serves the minimum 17 years imposed for killing Kriss. It means it could be as late as 2027 before he is freed.

The teenager was murdered in March 2004 after being abducted by the racist mob in the Glasgow’s Pollokshields area.

Shahid was seeking revenge after earlier being assaulted – despite Kriss being blameless. He was snatched because he was white, then stabbed, doused in petrol and burned in Glasgow’s East End.

Shahid was jailed for a minimum of 25 years after he was convicted in 2006. His brother Zeeshan and Mohammed Mushtaq were also jailed for life. Zahid had been found guilty at a separate trial.

Imran Shahid was granted an appeal in 2011 after apparently fresh evidence from Zahid had emerged.

In a bid to clear him, Zahid was prepared to testify that he had been at the murder as an “unwilling accomplice”, but that it had been committed by another Asian gang. He claimed the other gang had threatened him into pinning the blame on Shahid.

Prosecutor Iain McSporran said: “He gave evidence on oath confirming his position as to who had really killed Kriss Donald. Imran Shahid was not involved and that he had been so frightened in the aftermath of the murder that he made notes on a phone… identifying the killers. He claimed that in 2008, he realised it was wrong for an innocent man to have been jailed for a crime he had not committed.

Judges rejected the appeal, branding the lies “an elaborate and sophisticated attempt to deceive the court”.