TWO former drug addicts were cleared yesterday of Scotland's first crack cocaine-related murder.
Patrick Hemphill, 37, and his cousin, Paul McKimm, 32, had been on trial at the High Court in Glasgow since last month for the murder of Greenock drug dealer Paul Peralta, 27.
They were both cleared with unanimous not proven verdicts, but McKimm did not walk free.
The jury found him guilty of trafficking in heroin and he was sentenced to eight years.
The judge had been told that McKimm had five previous convictions for drugs offences and had been released early from a three-year drug sentence when he was caught dealing again.
He also had a previous conviction for attempted murder.
Peralta's badly burned body was found in the boot of his Rover car which had been driven to a quiet farm track outside Port Glasgow. It lay there for 11 days after Peralta, of Maple Road, Greenock, vanished on October 5 or 6 last year. His body was so charred that pathologists could not establish the cause of death. Police suspicions, however, focused on Hemphill, of Bank Street, Paisley, and McKimm, of Huntly Terrace, Port Glasgow, whom it was alleged, had bought crack cocaine from Peralta.
The court heard an allegation that Peralta had cheated Hemphill by selling him an ounce of sugar.
When Hemphill gave evidence for his defence he admitted he met Peralta on the night he died, not to kill him but to sell him a #750 Ford Orion car.
Hemphill claimed that as they sat in the Orion on the farm track Peralta smoked crack cocaine and injected himself with heroin. He told Mr Donald Findlay, QC, defending, that Peralta got out of the car and began to fight with an imaginary opponent.
''As quick as he started it he fell flat on his face. He never said another word,'' said Mr Hemphill.
Scottish football team doctor Professor Stewart Hillis said anyone who took large amounts of crack cocaine ran the risk of a heart attack, even healthy athletes whose hearts were sound.
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