Man shot by police after siege was 'drinking heavily'

shot by police marksmen.

The next day Mr Stewart, 28, went to the home of his former girlfriend

in Dumbarton Road, Clydebank, armed with a sawn-off shotgun. He died in

hospital after a siege ended when officers from Strathclyde police shot

him.

A fatal accident inquiry before Sheriff Principal Robert Hay at

Dumbarton Sheriff Court was told by Miss Ruth Walker, a former barmaid

at the Whisky Joe's public house, that Mr Stewart, of Henderson Street,

Whitecrook, Clydebank, was drunk in the bar the night before his death.

She said she had formerly been a neighbour of Mr Stewart's

ex-girlfriend, Alison Cronin.

On that night Mr Stewart had asked her why he had just seen his former

girlfriend in her, Miss Walker's, car with another friend, and when she

said she did not know, Mr Stewart had replied: ''Don't worry. They are

in for a shock.''

Miss Walker told the inquiry that she had telephoned Alison Cronin to

warn her that Mr Stewart might be going round to her house but had

received no reply. He had later been escorted out of the public house.

In earlier evidence, one of Mr Stewart's sisters, Mrs Marion

Gallacher, 31, of Braes Avenue, Clydebank, said she had been at home on

May 17 last year when two police officers told her of a siege at Alison

Cronin's house involving her brother who had a shotgun.

She had gone to the scene with the police who had asked if her brother

had been violent to any of them before. The worst he would do, she said,

was to slam the door. She said that, from the police car, she had heard

first an explosion of glass and then later two shots in quick

succession. Visibly upset, Mrs Gallacher said she thought her brother

had shot himself. She had been annoyed because she could not find out

what was happening.

Cross examined by Mr David Burns, QC, for the family, Mrs Gallacher

said she had been asked by the police to go to the house to speak to her

brother. She said she would have told him to lay down the gun and come

out.

Mr Burns: Do you think he would have done so?

Mrs Gallacher: Of course, he would have.

It was not until the following day after her brother had died that she

learned the police had shot him, she said.

Miss Mary Hyslop, 23, of Shakespeare Avenue, Clydebank, said she was

aware of violence by Arthur Stewart to her friend, Alison Cronin, whom

he had refused to leave despite being asked to do so. She was aware Miss

Cronin had written him a letter in prison saying she wanted to end the

relationship. On one occasion when Miss Cronin had asked her to

telephone the police, Mr Stewart had said he ''would chop me into little

bits and send me back to my mother in a plastic bag''.

Even when Miss Cronin had obtained an interdict Mr Stewart still went

back to her house. But in earlier evidence, members of Mr Stewart's

family denied they had been aware of any violence.

His mother, Mrs Margaret Stewart, of Northbank Place, Clydebank, said

that the relationship between her son and Miss Cronin had been happy,

with a few domestic quarrels. He had been very good to her small

daughter. She said her son had escaped from Low Moss prison intending to

see Miss Cronin after she had written to him ending the relationship.

The inquiry, which continues today, is expected to last a week.