bekisman
15-Mar-08, 21:36
Wonder if they have caught him at last?
Soldier denies 1994 Orkney murder
I well remember this as at the time my wife and I were 'Secret Shoppers' for a certain Bank, our 'job' was to arrange a meeting with the Bank Manager, go incognito; false name, addresses etc into a fair number of Banks in the Highlands and intimate we were just moving into the area, had seen a house and what type of Mortgage could they offer? They were 'supposed' to offer the particular type the bank were offering at that time.. Not only had we to take a mental note of such things as how long did the Bank take to answer the phone, were there enough pens at the tables, was the wall clock correct, etc.
All of the Banks had been warned there would be Secret Shoppers calling within a six week time frame. Well we enjoyed the experience, but on our final bank we thought we had been rumbled, as the manager was a bit of a nervous wreck, very fidgety.. it was halfway through our standard patter that he apologised for being in such a state. We waited for the 'I know who you are' response, but no, he told us he had been on Orkney the previous day and whilst sitting eating a meal, some masked person had come in and shot dead a waiter, and he had been showered with blood.. Hmm.. anyway in the end this particular Manager had a good report from us!
This will be an interesting case..
"A soldier has denied murdering a waiter in an Indian restaurant on Orkney almost 14 years ago. Michael Ross, 29, of Inverness, is accused of entering the building in Kirkwall with his face masked and shooting Shamsuddin Mahmood, 26. Defence counsel for Ross, who was 15-years-old at the time of the alleged murder in 1994, lodged a plea of not guilty at the High Court in Glasgow. A five-week trial is expected to start in May.Ross also faces other charges for offences alleged to have happened at the time of and before Mr Mahmood's murder on 2 June 1994. He is accused of attempting to defeat the ends of justice by changing his clothing and disposing of the weapon. Serving soldier He is also charged with, while acting with others whose identities are unknown, committing a breach of the peace outside the Indian restaurant by shouting, swearing, uttering threats of violence and racist abuse. Ross was further accused of crouching behind a wall and trees and committing a breach of the peace. His defence counsel Donald Findlay QC lodged a plea of not guilty to all the charges Ross faces. He told judge Lord Hardie: "The man I represent is a serving soldier." The murder of Mr Mahmood, originally from Bangladesh, was the first to happen in Orkney for 25 years and sparked one of the Northern Constabulary's biggest ever investigations."
http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Soldier-denies-killingwaiter-13-years.3881821.jp (http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Soldier-denies-killingwaiter-13-years.3881821.jp)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7296426.stm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7296426.stm)
Soldier denies 1994 Orkney murder
I well remember this as at the time my wife and I were 'Secret Shoppers' for a certain Bank, our 'job' was to arrange a meeting with the Bank Manager, go incognito; false name, addresses etc into a fair number of Banks in the Highlands and intimate we were just moving into the area, had seen a house and what type of Mortgage could they offer? They were 'supposed' to offer the particular type the bank were offering at that time.. Not only had we to take a mental note of such things as how long did the Bank take to answer the phone, were there enough pens at the tables, was the wall clock correct, etc.
All of the Banks had been warned there would be Secret Shoppers calling within a six week time frame. Well we enjoyed the experience, but on our final bank we thought we had been rumbled, as the manager was a bit of a nervous wreck, very fidgety.. it was halfway through our standard patter that he apologised for being in such a state. We waited for the 'I know who you are' response, but no, he told us he had been on Orkney the previous day and whilst sitting eating a meal, some masked person had come in and shot dead a waiter, and he had been showered with blood.. Hmm.. anyway in the end this particular Manager had a good report from us!
This will be an interesting case..
"A soldier has denied murdering a waiter in an Indian restaurant on Orkney almost 14 years ago. Michael Ross, 29, of Inverness, is accused of entering the building in Kirkwall with his face masked and shooting Shamsuddin Mahmood, 26. Defence counsel for Ross, who was 15-years-old at the time of the alleged murder in 1994, lodged a plea of not guilty at the High Court in Glasgow. A five-week trial is expected to start in May.Ross also faces other charges for offences alleged to have happened at the time of and before Mr Mahmood's murder on 2 June 1994. He is accused of attempting to defeat the ends of justice by changing his clothing and disposing of the weapon. Serving soldier He is also charged with, while acting with others whose identities are unknown, committing a breach of the peace outside the Indian restaurant by shouting, swearing, uttering threats of violence and racist abuse. Ross was further accused of crouching behind a wall and trees and committing a breach of the peace. His defence counsel Donald Findlay QC lodged a plea of not guilty to all the charges Ross faces. He told judge Lord Hardie: "The man I represent is a serving soldier." The murder of Mr Mahmood, originally from Bangladesh, was the first to happen in Orkney for 25 years and sparked one of the Northern Constabulary's biggest ever investigations."
http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Soldier-denies-killingwaiter-13-years.3881821.jp (http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Soldier-denies-killingwaiter-13-years.3881821.jp)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7296426.stm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7296426.stm)