A SECURITY guard suffered ''gross destruction'' internally after being
shot at close range by a shotgun, a pathologist told a murder trial
yesterday.
Most of 21-year-old Derek Ure's organs were hit as shot spread inside
him, the doctor said.
Dr Marie Theresa Cassidy told the High Court at Paisley that Security
Express guard Mr Ure died of his injuries. Another doctor said that the
barrel of the double-barrel shotgun which had not been fired had left a
ring on Mr Ure's skin where it been pressed against his back.
Mr Mark Vass, 29, of Vaila Place, Cadder, and Mr Peter Hetherington,
31, of Mingulay Street, Milton, both Glasgow, deny murdering Mr Ure.
They also deny trying to rob his van and of conspiring to rob other
security vans by following them and taking observations.
They have lodged a special defence of alibi.
More than 160 witnesses have been cited and the trial is expected to
last a month.
Ambulanceman George Webster, 47, told earlier that he attended a
shooting in the service lane behind Boots the chemist in Greenock
shopping centre on March 26.
He was directed to a large refuse bin by police and inside found Mr
Ure, moaning in pain and bleeding badly, he told a jury and Lord Cowie.
''A policeman shone his torch and I saw the guard lying behind the
right-hand door of the bin,'' he said. ''He had a hole the size of a
fifty pence piece in his back and we attended to it,'' he said.
Mr Webster said Mr Ure, a big man, had to be lifted out by six people.
He was taken by ambulance to Inverclyde Royal Hospital but died later.
His workmate Mr Jack Gillies, 42, was found handcuffed.
Mr Gillies has told the court that he and Mr Ure were ambushed by
three armed men, two wearing masks, and forced into the refuse shelter.
They were threatened and Mr Ure was shot and their attackers
demanded the keys of their armoured security van.
The assailants left after failing to rob the van.
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