Former soldier’s Orkney murder conviction to be re-examined 18 years after life sentence
Fresh examination of murder case as convicted soldier launches new appeal bid.
A former soldier serving a life sentence for murdering a waiter in Orkney when he was 15 is to have his conviction re-examined after a fresh application was accepted by Scotland’s criminal cases review body.
Michael Ross was convicted in 2008 of murdering Shamsuddin Mahmood, who was shot in the head at point-blank range as he served customers at the Mumutaz Indian restaurant in Kirkwall in 1994.
Mr Ross, who went on to become a sniper in the Black Watch and served in Iraq, has always maintained his innocence.
The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) rejected an earlier application from Ross in 2014. It has now confirmed that it has received a new application and accepted it for review.
The SCCRC has the powers to investigate potential wrongful convictions, and it can refer cases back to the appeal court if it believes there may have been a miscarriage of justice. Its examination could ultimately result in Mr Ross’s case being referred back to the courts.
The SCCRC said it was restricted by law in the information it could disclose but did confirm it had received a further application from Mr Ross which the Commission accepted for review.
Mr Mahmood, a 26-year-old Bangladeshi national and university graduate, was shot dead in front of diners, including young children, after a masked gunman entered the restaurant.
His murder shocked Orkney and remained unsolved for more than a decade.
Mr Ross, then a 15-year-old schoolboy, was the prime suspect but the case went cold without sufficient evidence available.
Twelve years after the killing, new witnesses came forward, leading to Mr Ross being charged and tried at the High Court in Glasgow in June 2008.
He was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum term of 25 years. At the time, Judge Lord Hardie reportedly said Mr Ross committed a “vicious, evil, unprovoked murder of a defenceless man,” motivated by “extreme racist prejudice.”
By then, Mr Ross, a married father of two, had joined the Army and become a sniper with the Black Watch. He had also been decorated for his service in Iraq.
His conviction, however, was followed by an extraordinary attempt to escape custody. As he was being led from the dock, Mr Ross knocked over a security guard and jumped out of the dock. He forced open a side door before being stopped in a court corridor.
The following day, a hire car was found abandoned in a supermarket car park in Springburn, Glasgow.
Inside were weapons including a loaded machine gun, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, a grenade and a hunting knife.
The attempted escape following the guilty verdict added a further five years behind bars.
Soon after he was jailed, a campaign group formed called Justice 4 Michael Ross to overturn what members believed to be a wrongful conviction.
Mr Ross previously had his case rejected by the appeal court in 2012, and by the SCCRC during an earlier review which concluded in 2015.
Over the last two decades, the controversial case has been told in two high-profile documentaries which aired last year — one on Amazon Prime, and another on BBC Scotland.
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