A WIDOW who wanted vengeance on the man she believed had set up her
husband's murder told police he was responsible for a pub robbery, the
High Court in Glasgow was told yesterday.
Police did not charge William Lobban, 25, in connection with the
shootings of Bobby Glover, 31, and his friend Joe ''Bananas'' Hanlon,
23. The court was told that Mrs Eileen Glover, 30, then tipped off
police that Lobban was the gunman in a blonde wig who had held up the
Pipe Rack pub in Budhill, Glasgow.
Her evidence about the raid led to Lobban being jailed for six years
yesterday.
Mrs Glover, who said she hated Lobban, said she held him responsible
for the deaths of her husband and Mr Hanlon.
When Mrs Glover told the court that she believed Lobban had been
involved in the killings, even if he was not the actual killer, He
interrupted: ''Eileen, Eileen. It wasn't me.''
Lobban, of Sunnylaw Street, Possilpark, Glasgow, had denied robbing
the pub in Crammond Place, Budhill, Glasgow, on July 28, 1991, of #949
at gunpoint.
Then, he was on the run after escaping from a six-year sentence for
assault and robbery imposed at the High Court in Paisley in February
1988. He was nicknamed Tootsie because he disguised himself in a woman's
wig and clothing.
Pub staff said they were confronted by Lobban, wearing a wig and
glasses. He struck a barman on the head several times with the gun
barrel. Mrs Glover, of Auchengill Road, Easterhouse, Glasgow, told Mr
Andrew Lamb, prosecuting, that Lobban had been living with her and her
husband at that time. But he left their house on August 16, 1991, the
night before Glasgow gangster Arthur Thompson Jr was shot dead outside
his home in Provanmill, Glasgow, while on weekend leave from prison
Mrs Glover said Lobban telephoned her the night before Thompson's
funeral on September 18, and arranged a meeting with her husband and Mr
Hanlon.
Their bodies were found in a car outside The Cottage Bar in
Shettleston on the morning of the funeral.
Six months after the pub hold-up she told police that Lobban said that
night he was going out to get ''a bit of money'', and she saw him with
the wig, gloves, glasses, a hold-all, and a gun. She claimed she had
counted the money, which he said he got from the Pipe Rack pub.
Mr Donald Findlay, QC, defending Lobban, said Mrs Glover was a liar,
acting through bitter and twisted malice.
Mr Findlay said Mr Glover and Mr Hanlon, had been found not just
murdered, but butchered in a cold, calculated, and deliberate way, and
it was said to be in revenge for the death of Arthur Thompson Jr.
Mr Findlay said: ''Eileen Glover despises William Lobban. She hates
him with a passion.''
He said she had concocted a story and influenced witnesses to have
Lobban blamed for the pub raid because she thought he was connected in
some way with her husband's death.
The jury found Lobban guilty by a majority, and Lord Kirkwood ordered
the six-year sentence to start in eight months, at the end of Lobban's
present sentence.
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