Teenager's racist killer fails with appeal bid

A GANG member who was jailed for life for the racially motivated murder of Glasgow teenager Kriss Donald has lost his bid to overturn the conviction.

Judges have rejected claims that new evidence would clear Imran Shahid - known as Baldy - and called for an investigation, believing the evidence was "fabricated" as part of a plot to fool the Court of Criminal Appeal.

Kriss was 15 when he was snatched from the street in Pollokshields in March 2004.

After taking him across Scotland, his captors returned to the Clyde Walkway near Celtic's training ground in the city's east end.

There Kriss was hauled from the car, stabbed, doused in petrol and set on fire.

Shahid, 34, was said to have snatched Kriss because he was white, and Shahid wanted to avenge some insult outside a Glasgow city centre nightspot.

Shahid's hopes of early freedom finally ended when appeal judges threw out the last of his challenges last month.

However, a gagging order imposed during lengthy appeal meant that the judges' rulings could not be reported until it was lifted yesterday.

Shahid was jailed for life after a trial in November 2006 and ordered to serve at least 25 years in jail before he can apply for parole. Two other Glasgow men, Mohammed Faisal Mushtaq and Zeeshan Shahid, Shahid's brother, were also jailed for life for their part in the murder.

But he went back to the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh claiming that text messages on a mobile phone hidden in an attic would reveal the identity of the true killers.

Appeal judges Lord Hamilton, sitting with Lords Reed and Emslie, became suspicious because the texts spelt Kriss Donald's unusual first name correctly. Examination of the phone also cast doubt on the story.