07 October
Scotland: Race Killing "I'm only 15. What did I do?"
'Boy 15 snatched off street, set alight and murdered for being white'
MURDERED schoolboy Kriss Donald pleaded: "I'm only 15. What did I do?" as he was beaten up and dragged into the back of a car by his abductors, a court heard yesterday. He was forced face down into the back of a silver Mercedes, threatened with a knife and told there was a gun in the car as he was driven off after being snatched from the street "because he was white".
The High Court in Edinburgh yesterday heard that Kriss was attacked and taken from a street in Pollokshields, Glasgow, because one of the men accused of his murder, Imran Shahid, 29, was angry and sought revenge after claiming he had been attacked with a glass bottle outside a nightclub the night before. It is alleged that Kriss was later set on fire and murdered. In the days following the discovery of his body, friends and family created an impromptu shrine, featuring photographs and football colours. A witness told the court that one of the gang had said: "He took it quietly."
The witness, Zahid Mohammed, 22, was originally accused of taking part in the murder. He pleaded guilty at the High Court in Glasgow in November 2004 to assault to injury on Kriss and attempting to pervert the course of justice. He was given a five-year jail term and was released on licence on Wednesday after applying for parole, the jurors were told. The jury also heard that he gave evidence again in November 2004 at the same court in the trial of his co-accused, Daanish Zahid, who is named as an alleged accomplice in the current trial.
Imran Shahid, Mohammed Faisal Mushtaq, 27, and Zeeshan Shahid, 29, deny racially aggravated murder. All three are on trial in Edinburgh, accused of abducting and killing Kriss by striking him with a knife or knives, then setting him on fire on 15 March, 2004.
Mohammed said that in March 2004 he was subject to a tagging order for motoring offences and possession of a knife. On Monday, 15 March, he went to Mushtaq's home in Pollokshields. The Shahid brothers were there, and Zahid joined them later. Mohammed described Imran Shahid, known as "Baldy", as quite angry and added: "He said he got attacked with a glass bottle the night before, outside a nightclub ... [by] the boys from McCulloch Street [Pollokshields]." The witness said the "McCulloch Street boys" were white and Imran Shahid had vowed that he was going to take revenge and would "chop them up, take their eyes out, things like that". It was planned that the group would go out in a car and look in McCulloch Street for "them ... anybody".
Mohammed said Imran Shahid asked for weapons and Mushtaq took a hammer and a screwdriver from a tool box and they were put in a blue carrier bag. Mohammed gave Imran Shahid a knife and helped him to dye his blond hair back to its natural dark colour. They all got into a silver Mercedes car and drove to McCulloch Street where they saw two boys, now known to be Kriss Donald and a friend, Jamie Wallace, turning into Kenmure Street. Imran Shahid said to let him out and he began fighting with the boys, especially Kriss. Mohammed agreed with a description of Imran Shahid's build as "massive" and said Kriss was "quite small" and could not fight back. Imran Shahid pushed Kriss into the car while Mushtaq pulled him in from the other side.
The advocate-depute, Mark Stewart, QC, asked how successful Kriss was in resisting and Mohammed replied: "Very little."
Mohammed said he had never met him before the incident. He agreed that nothing would have happened if Kriss and his friend had been Chinese, African-American or Asian. He said they were targeted because they were white.
Mr Stewart asked if Kriss had said anything. Mohammed answered: "Yes, he said, 'I'm only 15. What did I do?' or something like that." Kriss was "scrunched down" in the footwell at the rear of the car, facing the floor. He was "scared". Mohammed said that both he and Imran Shahid punched Kriss on the back and Imran Shahid had said: "I'm Baldy. Nobody f***s with me."
Also, Imran Shahid pressed the point of a knife against Kriss's back, and asked if he could feel it. The car went to a flat in the Parkhead area, but no-one was at home. A number of phone calls were made to try to find "a place or a park or something ... to batter Kriss". Imran Shahid threatened Kriss to force him to name the people from were the previous night. Kriss appeared to know what he was talking about and gave a few names. Mohammed said he was dropped off at Strathclyde Park because he had to be home in time for his tagging curfew.
Next day, he went to Mushtaq's flat and spoke to Zeeshan Shahid, known as Crazy. "I asked what had happened. Crazy said, 'He took it quietly'." Mr Stewart ended by asking Mohammed: "Is the evidence you have given here today, sworn on the holy Koran, the truth?" Mohammed replied: "Yes."
David Burns, QC, for Imran Shahid, said Mohammed had done a deal with the prosecution by which he received a five-year sentence and agreed to give evidence against others. "You knew you would get life imprisonment if convicted of murder, and much less if you pleaded to something less?" asked Mr Burns.
Mohammed said: "Yes."
Donald Findlay, QC, for Mushtaq, accused the witness of being "a liar, pure and simple" and someone who was "cunning and conniving". The witness denied it. Mr Findlay continued: "Co-incidentally, you were released from prison [in England] the day before you give evidence and got a lift here from the police."
He said on Mohammed's account, he might have supplied the weapon which killed Kriss. "Up to your neck in it is an understatement," suggested Mr Findlay.
Mohammed agreed with Norman Ritchie, QC, for Zeeshan Shahid, that he had been granted parole at the first time of asking and a police agreement that offered him a new home and a new identity when the trial ends.
Race-hate Asians jailed for 'abominable' murder of boy
Kriss Donald, 15, was tortured and killed because he was white
Three Asian men were jailed for life yesterday for the “diabolical” race-hate murder of a 15-year-old schoolboy. The three, who terrorised the Glasgow community where they lived, were convicted of murdering Kriss Donald at the end of an emotionally charged six-week trial. The slightly built boy was stabbed 13 times and then set on fire while he was still alive, simply because he had white skin.
Judge Lord Uist told the three killers that the “savage and barbaric nature of this notorious crime has rightly shocked and appalled the public”.
At the High Court in Edinburgh Imran Shahid, 29, was ordered to spend at least 25 years behind bars. When he murdered Kriss he had only been out of prison for three months after serving a 30-month sentence for a road-rage attack on a woman.
His brother, Zeeshan Shahid, 28, must spend 23 years in prison before being considered for parole and Mohammad Faisal Mushtaq, 27, will serve 22 years for the abduction and murder of Kriss on March 15, 2004.
All three had fled to Pakistan after the killing, believing that they were beyond the reach of British justice because the two countries had no extradition agreement. But improving co-operation between Britain and Pakistan over the deportation of terror suspects was extended to deal with other serious criminals.
In June 2005, armed Pakistani police swooped on a flat in Lahore and a remote farmhouse in Punjab and arrested all three men. Four months later the trio agreed to return to Scotland to stand trial rather than spend any more time in Rawalpindi prison.
That trial ended yesterday with the judge telling them that they had been convicted of the murder of a “wholly innocent” teenage boy. The judge continued: “He was selected as your victim only because he was white and walking in a certain part of the Pollokshields area of Glasgow when you sought out a victim.
“This murder consists of the premeditated, cold-blooded execution of your victim by stabbing him 13 times and setting alight with petrol while he was still alive. It truly was an abomination.
“The agony which he must have suffered during the period between being stabbed and set alight and his death is just beyond imagination.” The boy’s mother, Angela, shouted: “You bastards” towards the killers as the jury returned guilty verdicts.
Kriss had been taken on a terrifying 200-mile journey across Scotland before being driven to a deserted spot on the banks of the Clyde, where he was stabbed, set alight and left for dead. He had dragged himself 50 yards in the darkness and rolled in a muddy puddle to try to extinguish the flames. He left a trail of blood, scorched earth and fragments of burnt clothing in his wake.
All three accused denied murder, but the jury of six men and nine women found Imran Shahid guilty by unanimous verdict and the other two guilty by majority verdicts.
The judge said Imran Shahid had taken the lead role. The judge told him: “It is clear to me from your criminal record and the evidence I have heard that you are a thug and a bully with a sadistic nature and that you are not fit to be at liberty in a civilised society.”
Kriss lived a few streets from his killers but did not know them. Half the population of Pollokshields is Asian, mainly of Pakistani origin, and in general the communities exist peacefully, but separately. But for some time residents had complained to police about drug and drink-fuelled clashes between Asian and white gangs.
Kriss, whose only declared allegiance was to Glasgow Rangers, did not belong to any gangs. Known as “Krypto”, he was regarded as the “man of the house” in McCulloch Street, where he lived with his mother, older sister and three younger siblings. On March 15, 2004, he had skipped classes at Bellahouston Academy to spend the afternoon with a friend. As the pair walked along Kenmure Street, a stolen silver Mercedes turned the corner. The five men in the car were looking for a white youth to carry out a revenge attack. Shahid, or “Baldy”, a body-builder with dyed blond hair shaved at the sides, was leader of the Asian “Shielders” gang. He claimed that he had been glassed by a “white boy from McCulloch Street” at a nightclub the previous evening and told friends that he wanted to “chop someone up” and “pull their eyes out”.
Among his own henchmen, Shahid was known as a “genuine nutter”. He had a history of violence dating from his teens, when he was jailed for leaving a man in a coma after beating him with a baseball bat. His younger brother, Zeeshan, or “Crazy”, was also a well-known thug who followed where his brother led. Both were the sons of a wealthy Lanarkshire businessman.
Kriss was overpowered, punched, kicked and bundled into the back seat. “What have I done? I’m only 15,” he shouted. Within weeks, two of the gang were arrested and charged. In November 2004, Daanish Zahid, 20, became the first person in Scotland to be jailed for life for a racially aggravated murder. His coaccused, Zahid Mohammad, 20, was jailed for five years for his part. Both men implicated the other three in the murder at the trial. Initially, the Government resisted requests to apply for deportation of the fugitives, but it relented after the case was raised with Tony Blair by Kriss’s local MP, Mohammad Sarwar.
Mr Sarwar said: “It was a very difficult time for me and my family. We got death threats. People should not feel they can commit crime in one city and then run away.”
There were no witnesses to the murder beyond the killers themselves. But the jury heard from people who had seen the abduction and testified to the gang’s attempts to burn the Mercedes and a bag of clothing. Kriss’s blood was found on the car and one of his trainers together with a jacket belonging to Imran Shahid were in it.
That the three went on the run was described by the prosecution as an “unimaginable coincidence” that signalled their guilt. Outside court, Kriss’s mother thanked police and the advocate depute, Mark Stewart, who led the prosecution team. She concluded: “Justice has been done. Thank you. It is over.”
How bad is it when you can not walk the streets of you home town whith out fear of something like this, but im sure the UK is not the only place this kind of thing goes on.
Scotland: Race Killing "I'm only 15. What did I do?"
'Boy 15 snatched off street, set alight and murdered for being white'
MURDERED schoolboy Kriss Donald pleaded: "I'm only 15. What did I do?" as he was beaten up and dragged into the back of a car by his abductors, a court heard yesterday. He was forced face down into the back of a silver Mercedes, threatened with a knife and told there was a gun in the car as he was driven off after being snatched from the street "because he was white".
The High Court in Edinburgh yesterday heard that Kriss was attacked and taken from a street in Pollokshields, Glasgow, because one of the men accused of his murder, Imran Shahid, 29, was angry and sought revenge after claiming he had been attacked with a glass bottle outside a nightclub the night before. It is alleged that Kriss was later set on fire and murdered. In the days following the discovery of his body, friends and family created an impromptu shrine, featuring photographs and football colours. A witness told the court that one of the gang had said: "He took it quietly."
The witness, Zahid Mohammed, 22, was originally accused of taking part in the murder. He pleaded guilty at the High Court in Glasgow in November 2004 to assault to injury on Kriss and attempting to pervert the course of justice. He was given a five-year jail term and was released on licence on Wednesday after applying for parole, the jurors were told. The jury also heard that he gave evidence again in November 2004 at the same court in the trial of his co-accused, Daanish Zahid, who is named as an alleged accomplice in the current trial.
Imran Shahid, Mohammed Faisal Mushtaq, 27, and Zeeshan Shahid, 29, deny racially aggravated murder. All three are on trial in Edinburgh, accused of abducting and killing Kriss by striking him with a knife or knives, then setting him on fire on 15 March, 2004.
Mohammed said that in March 2004 he was subject to a tagging order for motoring offences and possession of a knife. On Monday, 15 March, he went to Mushtaq's home in Pollokshields. The Shahid brothers were there, and Zahid joined them later. Mohammed described Imran Shahid, known as "Baldy", as quite angry and added: "He said he got attacked with a glass bottle the night before, outside a nightclub ... [by] the boys from McCulloch Street [Pollokshields]." The witness said the "McCulloch Street boys" were white and Imran Shahid had vowed that he was going to take revenge and would "chop them up, take their eyes out, things like that". It was planned that the group would go out in a car and look in McCulloch Street for "them ... anybody".
Mohammed said Imran Shahid asked for weapons and Mushtaq took a hammer and a screwdriver from a tool box and they were put in a blue carrier bag. Mohammed gave Imran Shahid a knife and helped him to dye his blond hair back to its natural dark colour. They all got into a silver Mercedes car and drove to McCulloch Street where they saw two boys, now known to be Kriss Donald and a friend, Jamie Wallace, turning into Kenmure Street. Imran Shahid said to let him out and he began fighting with the boys, especially Kriss. Mohammed agreed with a description of Imran Shahid's build as "massive" and said Kriss was "quite small" and could not fight back. Imran Shahid pushed Kriss into the car while Mushtaq pulled him in from the other side.
The advocate-depute, Mark Stewart, QC, asked how successful Kriss was in resisting and Mohammed replied: "Very little."
Mohammed said he had never met him before the incident. He agreed that nothing would have happened if Kriss and his friend had been Chinese, African-American or Asian. He said they were targeted because they were white.
Mr Stewart asked if Kriss had said anything. Mohammed answered: "Yes, he said, 'I'm only 15. What did I do?' or something like that." Kriss was "scrunched down" in the footwell at the rear of the car, facing the floor. He was "scared". Mohammed said that both he and Imran Shahid punched Kriss on the back and Imran Shahid had said: "I'm Baldy. Nobody f***s with me."
Also, Imran Shahid pressed the point of a knife against Kriss's back, and asked if he could feel it. The car went to a flat in the Parkhead area, but no-one was at home. A number of phone calls were made to try to find "a place or a park or something ... to batter Kriss". Imran Shahid threatened Kriss to force him to name the people from were the previous night. Kriss appeared to know what he was talking about and gave a few names. Mohammed said he was dropped off at Strathclyde Park because he had to be home in time for his tagging curfew.
Next day, he went to Mushtaq's flat and spoke to Zeeshan Shahid, known as Crazy. "I asked what had happened. Crazy said, 'He took it quietly'." Mr Stewart ended by asking Mohammed: "Is the evidence you have given here today, sworn on the holy Koran, the truth?" Mohammed replied: "Yes."
David Burns, QC, for Imran Shahid, said Mohammed had done a deal with the prosecution by which he received a five-year sentence and agreed to give evidence against others. "You knew you would get life imprisonment if convicted of murder, and much less if you pleaded to something less?" asked Mr Burns.
Mohammed said: "Yes."
Donald Findlay, QC, for Mushtaq, accused the witness of being "a liar, pure and simple" and someone who was "cunning and conniving". The witness denied it. Mr Findlay continued: "Co-incidentally, you were released from prison [in England] the day before you give evidence and got a lift here from the police."
He said on Mohammed's account, he might have supplied the weapon which killed Kriss. "Up to your neck in it is an understatement," suggested Mr Findlay.
Mohammed agreed with Norman Ritchie, QC, for Zeeshan Shahid, that he had been granted parole at the first time of asking and a police agreement that offered him a new home and a new identity when the trial ends.
Race-hate Asians jailed for 'abominable' murder of boy
Kriss Donald, 15, was tortured and killed because he was white
Three Asian men were jailed for life yesterday for the “diabolical” race-hate murder of a 15-year-old schoolboy. The three, who terrorised the Glasgow community where they lived, were convicted of murdering Kriss Donald at the end of an emotionally charged six-week trial. The slightly built boy was stabbed 13 times and then set on fire while he was still alive, simply because he had white skin.
Judge Lord Uist told the three killers that the “savage and barbaric nature of this notorious crime has rightly shocked and appalled the public”.
At the High Court in Edinburgh Imran Shahid, 29, was ordered to spend at least 25 years behind bars. When he murdered Kriss he had only been out of prison for three months after serving a 30-month sentence for a road-rage attack on a woman.
His brother, Zeeshan Shahid, 28, must spend 23 years in prison before being considered for parole and Mohammad Faisal Mushtaq, 27, will serve 22 years for the abduction and murder of Kriss on March 15, 2004.
All three had fled to Pakistan after the killing, believing that they were beyond the reach of British justice because the two countries had no extradition agreement. But improving co-operation between Britain and Pakistan over the deportation of terror suspects was extended to deal with other serious criminals.
In June 2005, armed Pakistani police swooped on a flat in Lahore and a remote farmhouse in Punjab and arrested all three men. Four months later the trio agreed to return to Scotland to stand trial rather than spend any more time in Rawalpindi prison.
That trial ended yesterday with the judge telling them that they had been convicted of the murder of a “wholly innocent” teenage boy. The judge continued: “He was selected as your victim only because he was white and walking in a certain part of the Pollokshields area of Glasgow when you sought out a victim.
“This murder consists of the premeditated, cold-blooded execution of your victim by stabbing him 13 times and setting alight with petrol while he was still alive. It truly was an abomination.
“The agony which he must have suffered during the period between being stabbed and set alight and his death is just beyond imagination.” The boy’s mother, Angela, shouted: “You bastards” towards the killers as the jury returned guilty verdicts.
Kriss had been taken on a terrifying 200-mile journey across Scotland before being driven to a deserted spot on the banks of the Clyde, where he was stabbed, set alight and left for dead. He had dragged himself 50 yards in the darkness and rolled in a muddy puddle to try to extinguish the flames. He left a trail of blood, scorched earth and fragments of burnt clothing in his wake.
All three accused denied murder, but the jury of six men and nine women found Imran Shahid guilty by unanimous verdict and the other two guilty by majority verdicts.
The judge said Imran Shahid had taken the lead role. The judge told him: “It is clear to me from your criminal record and the evidence I have heard that you are a thug and a bully with a sadistic nature and that you are not fit to be at liberty in a civilised society.”
Kriss lived a few streets from his killers but did not know them. Half the population of Pollokshields is Asian, mainly of Pakistani origin, and in general the communities exist peacefully, but separately. But for some time residents had complained to police about drug and drink-fuelled clashes between Asian and white gangs.
Kriss, whose only declared allegiance was to Glasgow Rangers, did not belong to any gangs. Known as “Krypto”, he was regarded as the “man of the house” in McCulloch Street, where he lived with his mother, older sister and three younger siblings. On March 15, 2004, he had skipped classes at Bellahouston Academy to spend the afternoon with a friend. As the pair walked along Kenmure Street, a stolen silver Mercedes turned the corner. The five men in the car were looking for a white youth to carry out a revenge attack. Shahid, or “Baldy”, a body-builder with dyed blond hair shaved at the sides, was leader of the Asian “Shielders” gang. He claimed that he had been glassed by a “white boy from McCulloch Street” at a nightclub the previous evening and told friends that he wanted to “chop someone up” and “pull their eyes out”.
Among his own henchmen, Shahid was known as a “genuine nutter”. He had a history of violence dating from his teens, when he was jailed for leaving a man in a coma after beating him with a baseball bat. His younger brother, Zeeshan, or “Crazy”, was also a well-known thug who followed where his brother led. Both were the sons of a wealthy Lanarkshire businessman.
Kriss was overpowered, punched, kicked and bundled into the back seat. “What have I done? I’m only 15,” he shouted. Within weeks, two of the gang were arrested and charged. In November 2004, Daanish Zahid, 20, became the first person in Scotland to be jailed for life for a racially aggravated murder. His coaccused, Zahid Mohammad, 20, was jailed for five years for his part. Both men implicated the other three in the murder at the trial. Initially, the Government resisted requests to apply for deportation of the fugitives, but it relented after the case was raised with Tony Blair by Kriss’s local MP, Mohammad Sarwar.
Mr Sarwar said: “It was a very difficult time for me and my family. We got death threats. People should not feel they can commit crime in one city and then run away.”
There were no witnesses to the murder beyond the killers themselves. But the jury heard from people who had seen the abduction and testified to the gang’s attempts to burn the Mercedes and a bag of clothing. Kriss’s blood was found on the car and one of his trainers together with a jacket belonging to Imran Shahid were in it.
That the three went on the run was described by the prosecution as an “unimaginable coincidence” that signalled their guilt. Outside court, Kriss’s mother thanked police and the advocate depute, Mark Stewart, who led the prosecution team. She concluded: “Justice has been done. Thank you. It is over.”
How bad is it when you can not walk the streets of you home town whith out fear of something like this, but im sure the UK is not the only place this kind of thing goes on.
Last edited by demondspawn (2006-11-10 23:25:34)