A heartless thief who was jailed for stealing two children’s charity tins earlier this month had been acquitted on a murder charge just days before.
David Lander was sentenced to five months in prison for making off with £160 after swiping tins from a city takeaway and a pub.
The money was due to be donated to children’s hospice charity Chas and the Childhood Eye Cancer Trust.
But it has now emerged that the 54-year-old had walked free from Glasgow High Court on November 20, after he was cleared of murdering his neighbour in Motherwell last year.
He had been accused of beating 56-year-old Gerry McGeough to death with a baseball bat or similar instrument in December last year.
After a trial lasting nine days, a jury returned a not proven verdict and Lander was acquitted, just nine days before he was caught on CCTV Sizzlers takeaway on Guild Street stealing one of the tins.
Lander had previously been convicted of assault, when he grabbed Robert Rankin and threatened to shove him in front of a train on Glasgow Central Station’s lower platform in May last year.
After admitting the offence, Lander was sentenced to 80 hours of unpaid work, but the Press and Journal understands he did not serve any of his sentence because he was remanded in custody soon afterwards awaiting the McGeough murder trial.
Last night, Mr Rankin – who is still seeing a therapist because of his terrifying ordeal – said he was “disgusted” when he read Lander had been convicted of stealing the tins.
The 59-year-old said:”The line was electrified, and they showed in court the train was only 14 seconds away, I would have been finished.
“It’s as if he’s in my face all the time, he’s all over the papers again.
“My wife has just died of a brain tumour, so to hear that he has stolen money from cancer charities makes me feel really bitter.
“I’m glad this time the judge put him in jail.”
