Murder accused’s policeman father was at crime scene, jurors are told
video played to court shows where waiter’s body lay in restaurant and a bullet hole in the wall
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The father of a man accused of murdering a waiter in an Indian restaurant 14 years ago was among police officers at the crime scene in Orkney, a court heard yesterday.
Michael Ross, 29, went on trial at the High Court in Glasgow yesterday accused of murdering 26-year-old Bangladeshi Shamsuddin Mahmood in June 1994.
A scenes-of-crime officer testified that Ross’s father, Constable Eddie Ross, was among the officers he saw at the scene.
Earlier the jury heard from the victim’s brother, barrister Abul Shafuddin, 63.
He told the court he had “no idea” why his younger brother was shot dead.
Mr Shafuddin, from Bangladesh, said: “It was a big shock. It took a long time to come to terms with.”
Ross denies entering the Mumutaz Restaurant in Kirkwall’s Bridge Street on June 2, 1994, while wearing a mask, and shooting the waiter.
He is also accused of other offences alleged to have happened at the time of and before Mr Mahmood’s murder.
Ross is accused of attempting to defeat justice by changing his clothing and disposing of the weapon.
He is further charged with, while acting with others whose identities are unknown, committing a breach of the peace outside the restaurant by shouting, swearing, uttering threats of violence and racist abuse.
Ross denies all the charges, including crouching behind a wall and trees and committing a breach of the peace.
His lawyer, Donald Findlay QC, lodged a special defence of alibi stating that his client was elsewhere on Orkney at the time of the murder.
Mr Shafuddin said his brother was one of 11 children and moved to Scotland after losing interest in his studies in his native Bangladesh.
His brother had a girlfriend in Bangladesh but he had fought with friends over her before moving to the UK in the early-90s, he said.
Cross-examining, Mr Findlay read from a statement Mr Shafuddin gave to the police at the time of the murder.
In it, he said he and his brother had argued over a local girl Mr Mahmood had been seeing in Orkney and whom he planned to marry.
Mr Findlay read from a statement the witness gave, saying he was annoyed because he thought the girl may have been of “easy virtue”.
But Mr Shafuddin told the court he could not remember the argument. He said: “It was a long time ago. We tried to forget about him.”
The court also heard that the victim, who had a BA degree from the National University of Bangladesh, had loaned his brother £3,200, despite working as a waiter.
The jury heard from Ian Clingan, a Northern Constabulary scenes-of-crime officer, who travelled to Orkney in the hours after the shooting.
Jurors were shown a video he took of the crime scene.
It showed alleyways outside the restaurant, the front of the building and inside.
The jury was then shown footage of a blanket in the middle of the floor and a bloodstained blue jacket, a shell casing and a bullet hole in the wall of the restaurant surrounded by red spots.
Mr Clingan was asked by advocate-depute Brian McConnachie QC about the bullet hole and cartridge.
The witness said the cartridge casing was not one he was familiar with, and he had been advised to ask Constable Ross outside.
Mr McConnachie asked if the officer was of any help.
Mr Clingan replied: “Yes.”
The trial continues.
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