Gangland killers lose conviction appeal

James McDonald (l) and Raymond Anderson were given the longest sentences in Scottish legal history

Two men who were given the longest jail terms in Scottish legal history for killing a man in Glasgow, have lost an appeal against their convictions.

Raymond Anderson and James McDonald shot mechanic Michael Lyons, at Applerow Motors in Lambhill in 2006.

Two other men, one of them the victim's cousin, were wounded in the attack.

The appeal court judges decided there had been no misdirection of the jury. The killers are also appealing the length of their 35-year jail sentences.

The murder trial in 2008 heard that Anderson, 48, and 37-year-old McDonald, masked and carrying handguns, walked into the Applerow Motors garage and shot three people.

Michael Lyons, the 21-year-old nephew of so-called crime chief Edward Lyons, died in the attack.

His cousin Steven Lyons was shot in the leg as he tried to flee and friend Robert Pickett was hit three times.

Anderson and McDonald had denied the crimes but were found guilty by a majority verdict.

The trial judge, Lord Hardie, called the attack "a cold-blooded execution" before jailing the pair for life and ordering that each should serve at least 35 years.

Mr Lyons was shot in what the judge said was a "cold-blooded execution"

Both men were trying to overturn the conviction, claiming that the judge had misdirected the jury in telling them there was enough evidence to convict them without the testimony of witness John Corkish.

Corkish was an associate of the pair who was found guilty of contempt of court because of the way he had given evidence.

The 46-year-old was sentenced to a year in prison but was released when a senior police officer said jailing him may harm the witness protection scheme by deterring others from giving evidence during future gangland trials.

The judges hearing the appeal - Lady Paton, Lord Kingarth and Lord Philip - ruled that the jury had not been misdirected.

They said: "Each individual piece of evidence, viewed in isolation, might not appear sufficient to reach any firm conclusion: but when viewed altogether, there is, in our opinion, such a coherence and pattern in the evidence that it can be concluded beyond reasonable doubt that the appellant [and second appellant] ... carried out the shooting at Applerow Motors."

The appeals against the sentence will be heard at a later date.