A HITMAN has been jailed for 22 years after being convicted of murdering a gangland figure in what a judge described as an "execution in a public car park".
Thirty-five-year-old William Paterson�was found guilty at the High Court in Glasgow after almost three weeks of being on trial.
Paterson had denied murdering Kevin 'Gerbil'Carroll, 29, by gunning him down at the Asda car park in Robroyston, Glasgow, on January 13, 2010.
He claimed he was at his girlfriend Sarah Maguire's house in Linn Gardens, Cumbernauld at the�time of the shooting but the jury rejected his alibi.
He was convicted of murder and a number of firearms charges.
Passing a minimum sentence of 22 years behind bars Judge Lord Armstrong told Paterson: "On the evidence this court has heard this murder appears to have been premeditated, planned carried out by you and others in the most calculated way.
"It was not a spontaneous event which happened in the spur of the moment, it was in effect an execution."
He said Carroll was murdered in the "most vicious and brutal" way. The judge added that it was carried out in a public car park where "ordinary members of the public were going about their everyday business" and "put at risk of gunfire". The trial heard Paterson's DNA was discovered on the handle of a Tesco bag that a gun used to assassinate Mr Carroll was found in.
And a phone expert showed that a mobile -which turned out to be Paterson's - was traced to the car park Asda seconds before the shooting at 1.23pm.
A phone call made to the phone at the crucial time placed him at the scene and was a "breakthrough" in the police investigation.
Paterson is the�first person to be convicted of murder charge after�the trial of Ross Monaghan collapsed due to a lack of evidence in 2012.
Paterson left Scotland for Spain on January 23, 2010, before suspicion fell on him and an international warrant was put out for his arrest in August that year.
He contacted lawyers in June 2014 and agreed to return to Scotland to face the charges against him.
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