Murder case dropped after one day in court

A MAN accused of murdering a known criminal in a crowded restaurant walked free yesterday, after the prosecution withdrew the charge against him.

Mark Clinton, 33, had only been on trial for one day, accused of stabbing Billy McPhee, 38, to death on 8 March last year, in the Brewers Fayre pub-restaurant in Springcroft Drive, Baillieston, Glasgow.

When the trial began its second day yesterday, the prosecutor, Murdo MacLeod, announced that the Crown was withdrawing the indictment against Mr Clinton, of Easterhouse.

The crucial identification evidence from two witnesses was insufficient for the case to go ahead, he added.

Mr Clinton, who has maintained his innocence since his arrest five weeks after the murder, lodged two special defences for his trial. One claimed he was elsewhere at the material time and the other blamed two named men and an unnamed man of Arab extraction for the killing.

The jury heard evidence from only three witnesses before the Crown deserted the case yesterday - a scenes of crime officer, who took photographs of the scene inside the restaurant, and two witnesses.

They had seen Mr McPhee being killed as he sat watching teatime sports results on television on the day of an Old Firm match and a Scotland-Wales rugby international. He died from a dozen stab wounds, possibly inflicted by a short ornamental sword, round the top of his chest and neck.

The prosecution case rested mainly on the identification evidence of the two witnesses, David Hart, 56, who is unemployed, and Henry Carey, 54, a teacher.

They saw the killer who, according to Mr Carey, had a rolled-up black polythene bag on top of his head, calmly walk into the restaurant to kill Mr McPhee.

Mr Hart thought the attacker was "mad" and was in fear of his own life. Mr Carey described the scene as "surreal", with not a word being spoken as the attack was carried out.

He said the attacker walked into the pub with his faced fixed downwards, and left the same way, after picking up the murder weapon from the floor.

Because of a family engagement, Mr Carey did not attend an identification parade, but when asked in court if he saw the killer, he pointed to Mr Clinton, who was sitting in the dock between two policemen, and said he was "60 per cent sure" it was him.

But a description given by him for a police artist’s impression resulted in a drawing of a man with a hooked nose, which the accused did not have.

Mr Hart also described the assailant as having a large bump on the bridge of his nose.

He did point out Mr Clinton at an ID parade, but when he gave evidence he said he had possibly picked out the wrong man.

His evidence was further put into question when Mr Hart admitted to Mr Clinton’s QC, Martin Jones, that his evidence had been contaminated.

Mr Hart claimed that as he waited in an anteroom to view the parade, he saw a newspaper article containing a photograph of Mr Clinton and that might have influenced his identification.

The court heard, however, that there would have been evidence that no such picture of Mr Clinton had ever been published anywhere, which Mr Hart said he could not explain.

Mr McPhee was an associate of the criminal "godfather" Tam McGraw, nicknamed "the Licensee". He survived an attempt on his life in 2002, when he was shot in the face at a social club.