FORMER SAS soldier Dr Thomas Shanks, who defied huge odds to become an anaesthetist after a deprived childhood in Blackhill, Glasgow, was jailed for life yesterday for murdering his former lover in a hail of bullets.

Nurse Vickie Fletcher, 21, had started a relationship with another man.

Shanks, 49, shot her 10 times with a Kalashnikov AK47 assault rifle outside the Castlefields pub in Castleford, Yorkshire, where she had been drinking with her new boyfriend.

After an eight-week retrial, a jury at Sheffield Crown Court took 10 hours to find him guilty of murder by a 10-2 majority verdict.

The court heard that, after the killing, Shanks drove to Birmingham where his ex-wife and daughter live before changing his mind about visiting them and driving to Scotland.

As he contemplated suicide in the hills near Lennoxtown, Stirlingshire, the doctor was tracked by police and eventually gave himself up outside a phone box.

The doctor had pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter. He claimed his personality had been affected by Gulf War Syndrome, possibly caused by a cocktail of inoculations given to him before he served as an anaesthetist in the 1991 war. However, the judge described his defence as ''spurious''.

Passing sentence, Mr Justice Jowitt said: ''It's clear to me that the unhappiness you found was very largely of your own making. You were brave and unhappy and jealous enough when you put together the gun and loaded the magazine. You knew what you were doing.''

Last night, Miss Fletcher's mother, Jeanette, said: ''This man should spend the rest of his natural life behind bars. That Vickie should die for no better reason than she made a bad choice of boyfriend is so cruel and such a waste.''

Shanks was one of nine children who spent a difficult childhood in the working class area of Blackhill. At the age of 10, he found his epileptic father dead.

His mother turned to drink and started to hit the children. Unable to take any more, the 15-year-old Shanks, who had no educational qualifications, decided to escape his grim surroundings and run away from home.

He joined the Army at the age of 17 after unsuccessful electrician and engineering apprenticeships. Just 18 months later, he became the youngest person for 10 years to pass the gruelling selection tests for the Special Air Service Regiment - Motto: Who Dares Wins.

Shanks left the SAS with outstanding references which recorded his conduct as ''exemplary'' and described him as a man of ''remarkable ability'' who was ''brave, honest and well-motivated''.

He went back into the education system and passed O-levels and then four Highers. He was accepted into medical school in Birmingham, but was badly affected by an incident as a student when he nearly died after being cornered and stabbed by a gang of skinheads.

Shanks, of Friarwood Lane, Pontefract, West Yorkshire, had a ''tempestuous'' three-year relationship with Miss Fletcher, whom he met when they both worked at Pontefract General Infirmary.

Their affair was characterised by violent and often public rows which eventually threatened the career of Shanks at the hospital and led him to describe his life at the time as ''an emotional roller-coaster''.

The doctor finally snapped after his relationship with Miss Fletcher ended and she began seeing former patient David Griffin, 48.

On May 7 1998, he took the assault rifle he had brought back from the Gulf and drove to Castleford, where he tracked Miss Fletcher to a bar and scuffled with Mr Griffin before following them to the Castlefields pub.

After a brief, heated conversation with Miss Fletcher in the car park he took the gun from the car and fired 15 bullets at her in two bursts as she tried to run away.

Ten of them hit the nurse, causing devastating injuries. She died two hours later in the hospital where they both worked.

Shanks told the court the shooting was ''like watching a video film''. In interviews with the police he admitted that it was only the shocking realisation of what he had done to Miss Fletcher that stopped him from going into the

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pub and shooting Mr Griffin and his son. Police later found a notebook in his car which bore the imprint of a note containing the phrases ''a moment of rage'' and ''ruined two lives instantly''.

Shanks later told police he wanted his story to be told, adding: ''Some other poor sod who gets into this situation will remember this story and avoid it.''

The court heard that Shanks volunteered to serve in the Gulf after he had qualified and claimed he suffered from symptoms including irritability, depression and memory loss after he returned.

But the jury was told that, years before he went to the Gulf, he was fined for butting a police officer following his arrest for drink driving after the end of another relationship.

He was once charged with assaulting Miss Fletcher and another nurse, although the charges were eventually withdrawn.

Mr Timothy Cassel QC, for Shanks, asked the judge to bear in mind when he made his recommendation on how long Shanks should serve that before the murder he had been a man who led ''a life of public service''.

He added: ''He, unlike most people convicted of murder, had led an exceptionally constructive and worthwhile life.''

At an earlier trial, at which the jury failed to reach a verdict on the murder charge, Shanks was found guilty of possessing the AK47 with intent to endanger life. He was sentenced to 12 years for that offence and nine years for possessing the weapon without authority, which he admitted.

After the case Miss Fletcher's mother said she was angry Shanks had tried to blacken her daughter's name throughout the trial.

''Justice has at last been done and the only criticism I would make is a life sentence should mean just that. This man should spend the rest of his natural life behind bars, but we must bear in mind that he will be released. Vickie will never get that chance.''

Mrs Fletcher described her daughter as ''a bright and vibrant young girl who loved life and dedicated herself, through nursing, to helping others''.

She added: ''We are very proud of her. It is obvious that her courage on that night - going out on to the car park alone to try to defuse the situation, even though Dr Shanks had shown violence towards her earlier that evening - cost her her life, but undoubtedly saved the lives of others.''

Detective Chief Superintendent Paul Johnston said it was reasonable to think that had Miss Fletcher not gone into the car park to talk to Shanks on the night, the doctor may have gone into the pub, which was full of people, with the gun.

He added: ''It doesn't bear thinking about. There's no doubt Dr Shanks has been a very courageous man in his time, particularly in the SAS, and it's a terrible shame that courage did not see him through and he did not have the strength of character to admit what he had done.''