Six gangsters should walk free from jail because claims that jurors had ‘made up their minds’ about their guilt during their trial weren’t properly investigated, appeal judges have heard.
Brian Ferguson, 38, Andrew Gallacher, 41, Robert Pickett, 54, Andrew Sinclair, 33, John Hardie, 36, and Peter Bain, 46, are serving prison sentences for conspiracy to murder.
They were convicted following proceedings at the High Court in Glasgow in May 2019.
Jurors heard how the men were associates of the Lyons criminal family and they were found guilty of plotting attempts to kill five men linked to their rivals, the Daniel family.
Police said it was a "miracle" that no-one died in the violent attacks.
The judge, Lord Mulholland, said the "sophisticated plot" was foiled by "good, old-fashioned detective work”.
On Thursday, lawyers for the men told the Court of Criminal Appeal that their clients should have their convictions quashed.
They told the court that during the trial, a woman called Ashley Muldoon, a partner of one of the accused men, told a solicitor that she saw three jurors leaving the High Court in Glasgow following the close of proceedings for the day.
She told the lawyer that she had heard the jurors say that they had made their minds up about the guilt of the men but would still need to listen to the lawyer's closing speeches.
Lord Mulholland appointed his clerk to investigate the claims and he concluded there was nothing to substantiate the claims.
Advocate Brian McConnachie QC, for Bain, told judges that Lord Mulholland shouldn’t have allowed his clerk to investigate.
He said this was because the clerk lacked the necessary skills to properly investigate the claims.
Mr McConnachie said his client suffered a miscarriage of justice because of how the probe was handled.
He added: “It is in my submission that it was in instructing the clerk of court to become the fact finder that the matter went off the rails.
“In my submission the error that his lordship fell into was in allowing the clerk of court to effectively be the fact finder and to assess questions of credibility and reliability.
“Irrespective of the fact that this was a trial and the ultimate fact finders would be the jury, the judge has significant training and experience in relation to assessing matters of fact and assessing issues of credibility and reliability.
“Your lordships do it all the time in civil proceedings; it’s done in evidential hearings; it’s done in circumstances where there’s an examination of the facts; it’s done in matters of prevarication and contempt of court.
“Nobody has any knowledge or any idea as to what the experience of the clerk of court is in matters such as this.
“In my submission, there has been, in the circumstances of this case, a miscarriage of justice having regards to the way in which the juror issue was dealt with.”
Ferguson, Gallacher and Hardie were each jailed for 20 years; Picket was jailed for 16 years; Bain was jailed for 15 years; and Sinclair was jailed for 13 years and three months.
Passing sentence, Lord Mulholland told them: "You sought to turn Glasgow into a war zone for your feud.
"This is a civilised city, which is based on the rule of law. There is no place for this type of conduct, retribution or the law of the jungle."
The court heard how the men had targeted Robert Daniel, Thomas Bilsland, Gary Petty, Ryan Fitzsimmons and Steven Daniel between June 2016 and September 2017 at locations in Glasgow, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire and Manchester.
The murder bids included an attack on Steven Daniel on May 18 2017.
After a high-speed car chase which ended with a crash on an off-ramp of the M8, he was attacked with a cleaver and a hammer.
His nose was almost severed from his face, and his injuries were so severe that police initially thought he had been shot at close range.
The Audi S3 used in the attack was set on fire, but a bloodied machete was discovered in the back seat.
Mr Daniel was badly injured in the attack in May 2017.
The first attack was on Robert Daniel, whose car was rammed by another vehicle before he was chased into a house in Robroyston, Glasgow in December 2016.
Once inside the house he was struck twice on the back of the head with what he later told police was a hatchet or a machete.
A month later, Thomas Bilsland suffered a fractured skull after he was set upon in Glasgow's Cranhill.
Gary Petty was targeted after he visited an Italian takeaway in Maryhill on 7 March 2017.
Former soldier Ryan Fitzsimmons was left unconscious and brain-damaged after being ambushed in the street by a masked gang on 28 April 2017.
The 34-year-old was attacked with a sword and a hammer outside the home he shared with his mother in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire.
He told jurors: "It felt like death was coming."
Lord Mulholland told the six men: "You were caught by good, old-fashioned detective work, identifying DNA on a tracker - and everything followed from there."
On Thursday, prosecutor Paul Kearney told the court that there was no evidence available to show that the clerk had mishandled the claims.
Mr Kearney told the court that there was evidence available to conclude that the claims made about the jurors were incorrect.
He added: “It is submitted that the procedure that the learned trial judge adopted in this case was one which was fair, which was detailed, which was extensive and which gathered information which enabled him to make a reasoned and reasonable decision in relation to the determination of the allegation made by Miss Muldoon.
“In my submission no miscarriage of justice in this case took place and for all those reasons I invite your lordships to refuse the appeal.”
Scotland’s most senior judge Lord Carloway, who sat with colleagues Lord Pentland and Lord Matthews, said the court needed time to consider its decision.
He added: “The court will wish to take time to consider this and we will issue a decision in writing in early course.”
