Man who shot boy dead in pram to stay in jail

A TURKISH man who shot dead a Scottish two-year-old in his pushchair has had his appeal case quashed.

Daimi Akyuz was jailed for 36 years in 2004 after he admitted causing the death of Alistair Grimason.

The infant was caught in the crossfire of a gunfight as he slept in his pram outside a cafe with his mother in Turkey in 2003. A stray bullet pierced his lung.

At the time Akyuz denied murder, but a judge in Izmir found the local car salesman and taxi driver guilty of deliberately killing the toddler, from East Kilbride.

He was sentenced to 30 years for murdering Alistair, 21 years for killing Ali Bektas and seven years for injuring two other men with a firearm in the gunfight in the Aegean seaside town of Foca.

Despite being sentenced to a total of 58 years, Akyuz would only face 36 behind bars, the maximum allowed in Turkey.

After a seven-year battle, a Turkish high court judge this week ruled that his sentence should stand.

Now Alistair's family hope that new tougher sentencing will help curb gun crime in Turkey.

Tuncer Essizhan, the boy's grandfather, said: "I hope this case spells the end of this kind of yob culture that has terrorised our streets.

"Previously defendants would claim injured bystanders of street gunfights were accidental and they would serve perhaps a year or two in jail before being released back on to streets to continue where they left off.

"This sentence means that from now on such people will be properly punished."