Two men have admitted conspiring with a convicted murderer to spring him from custody during a hospital visit in a plan foiled by police.
Officers covertly set up audio and video surveillance when they discovered the plot to help Robert Paterson escape from custody, and intercepted.
John Wilson, 29, Scott McAllister, 39, and Paterson, 32, admitted conspiring, between January 12 and January 17, to defeat the ends of justice and help Paterson escape from from HMP Shotts while on a pre-arranged visit to Wishaw General Hospital.
The trio pled guilty when they appeared before Lord Bracadale at the High Court in Glasgow.
Wilson and McAllister admitted visiting the hospital grounds to establish a way for Paterson to escape and left a car there with the keys and a phone inside.
Advocate Depute Jonathan Brodie, QC, told the court: "Mr Paterson is a keen footballer but has a long-standing knee injury which requires treatment at Wishaw Hospital. The accused knew he was to have an appointment and, using phone communication with Mr Paterson in prison, began to discuss plans for an escape from the hospital grounds.
"The plan became known to police at an early stage and was intercepted.
"It's doubtful whether the plan could be realised."
They will be sentenced today at the High Court in Glasgow.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article