THREE killers who shot dead a brave grandfather, Mr David Dunn, in
their panic-stricken flight from a #185,000 bank robbery were jailed for
life yesterday.
Lord Osborne told Robert Smith, Gerald McQuade, and Paul Bootland:
''Tragically, David Dunn has paid with his life the price of assisting
in bringing you to justice.'' The judge also praised members of the
public whose courage foiled the escape.
Mr Dunn was shot in the chest by Smith at a range of no more than a
foot as he leaned into the robbers' getaway car and lashed out with a
bag of shopping.
After a 17-day trial at the High Court in Edinburgh the jury took more
than six hours, and an overnight hotel stay, to return guilty verdicts
against all three accused on charges of murder, attempted murder, and
bank robbery.
By majority verdicts they convicted Smith, 33; McQuade, 40; and
Bootland, 25, of murdering Mr Dunn, a 63-year-old retired mining
engineer in a car park at Bonnyrigg, Midlothian on October 19 last year.
The most difficult task for the jury was to decide whether all three
accused, including getaway driver Bootland, who never fired a shot, were
responsible for everything that happened. They decided that because all
three had gone on a bank raid armed with loaded weapons, each was
responsible for the other's actions.
All three were also convicted of attempting to murder off-duty
policeman John Duffy, along with Mr John Girdler and Mr Duncan Milliken,
two members of the public who risked their lives to help Detective
Constable Duffy thwart the escape.
They tried to shoot their way out of the car park near the Bank of
Scotland in High Street, Bonnyrigg, which Smith, a Life Guards
lance-corporal on the run, and McQuade had robbed of #185,000 moments
earlier.
If Bootland had not stalled the car, the gang might have escaped,
sparing Mr Dunn's life.
The judge saw grounds for distinguishing between them, given that
McQuade, of Prospecthill Road, Toryglen, Glasgow, had a criminal record;
Bootland, of Greenend Grove, Edinburgh, had played a comparatively small
part in the robbery; and Smith, on the run from the Army, was a first
offender with an exemplary Army record.
For the robbery charge he jailed McQuade for 20 years, Smith for 15
and Bootland for 10.
The judge went on: ''The sequel to the robbery was of course the
appalling series of events in the nearby car park. Through the
courageous and commendable intervention of members of the public your
escape was fortunately foiled.
''In this connection I should like to recognise publicly the bravery
of the late David Dunn, of John Duffy, John Girdler and Duncan Milliken.
Also, of course, I recognise the valiant efforts of the two security
staff, Robert Bourhill and Ronald Allan.''
Mr Bourhill and Mr Allan were the Securicor men robbed at gunpoint in
the bank on October 19. They chased Smith and McQuade as they made their
escape. Lord Osborne added: ''You, Smith and McQuade, were prepared
callously to make use of the loaded firearms in your possession in order
to make good your escape, an action which I can only describe as
contemptible.''
For murdering Mr Dunn, he jailed all three for life, the only sentence
open to him.
For the attempted murder of Mr Duffy, McQuade, who actually fired the
shots, was jailed for 12 years; Smith for eight; and Bootland for six.
For the attempted murders of Mr Duffy, Mr Milliken, and Mr Girdler,
who were fired at by Smith, Smith got 12 years; McQuade eight; and
Bootland six.
The judge gave all three five years each for firearms offences and
ordered all the sentences to run concurrently. He chose not to recommend
a minimum sentence to be served on the murder charge.
During the trial, the jury heard how the bank raid itself had gone
like clockwork. Smith, a Gulf war tank commander, and McQuade had
calculated that it would take them no more than a minute. In the event,
they were in and out of the bank in 55 seconds.
From then on things went badly and, for Mr Dunn, tragically wrong.
The raiders could never have dreamed that so many ordinary citizens of
Bonnyrigg would be prepared to ''have a go'' and turn their flight into
a fiasco.
The shoot-out in the car park could easily have claimed several more
lives. McQuade fired his Webley revolver twice at DC Duffy at point
blank range as the off-duty policeman grappled with him: amazingly, the
only physical injury was a powder burn to the policeman's hand.
When the revolver was exmamined later two bullets were lodged in the
barrel.
Then, after Duffy, Girdler and Milliken, had pinned the struggling
McQuade to the ground, Smith shot at them three times from the getaway
car with a pistol he had smuggled back from the Gulf.
Again, the gun failed to work properly. Tests later revealed it also
had a fault.
Ironically, Bootland's Browning semi-automatic pistol appeared to be
the only gun working properly, and it was never fired.
After the verdict, Lord Osborne told the three men: ''You have been
convicted of an armed robbery of serious character which was plainly
executed after careful planning some time in advance.
''A considerable number of security staff, bank employees and members
of the public were assaulted and no doubt terrified by their having
presented at them firearms. The result was the abstraction from the bank
of a very substantial sum of money which happily has been recovered.
''Your crime as regards the robbery can only be seen as one of the
most grave of its kind involving an outright defiance of the criminal
law and of all decent standards of conduct, carried out in furtherance
of your own greed.
''For that, in my opinion, you must be severely punished.''
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