Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Brute Black found dead inside his prison cell
Gangster once described as ‘one of the most dangerous men in Scotland’ said to have died of natural causes in Low Moss
A vicious Airdrie thug — who a sheriff previously dubbed “the most evil, vicious man I have ever dealt with” at the town’s court — has died in jail.
The body of feared and violent criminal Gary Black was discovered in his cell bed at HMP Low Moss, near Glasgow, on January 15. It is understood the notorious 29-year-old died from natural causes.
Underworld sources said gangster Black was a a major player in Lanarkshire’s drug trade, pocketing more than £2million in ill-gotten gains.
The thug’s criminal record stretched back to December 2001, when he was convicted of a sexual assault at the age of just 14.
On Valentine’s Day 2004, he carried out a savage attack on 18-year-old Kenneth Baillie and when the case came to the High Court in Edinburgh in 2006, Sheriff Alfred Vannet branded Black one of Scotland’s “most dangerous men”.
The sheriff added: “I will long remember the gasps from the jury when they watched a video of you and the extent of the attack you subjected that young man to.”
At the time of the 2004 assault, career criminal Black was on bail having already served 18 months for two other violent attacks.
Then in May 2015, Black was jailed for five years at Airdrie Sheriff Court after threatening two witnesses in an Airdrie pub.
The terrified pair were due to give evidence in a jury trial against Black’s brother, who had been charged with assaulting a woman.
Black threatened the man with violence with the intention of causing him to withdraw his statement, offered him cash and induced him to write a letter to the procurator fiscal at Airdrie claiming he was an unreliable witness.
He then threatened the woman with violence and told her that he knew where she lived and offered her money to withdraw her statement incriminating his brother and to fail to identify him at an identification parade.
Sentencing Black, Sheriff Robert Dickson, one of Scotland’s most prominent and longestserving judges, told him: “You put witnesses into a state of fear and terror for their safety and told them they would have to look over their shoulders for the rest of their lives.
“You are the most evil, vicious person that I have ever dealt with in this court.”
Black was also involved in the death of tragic teenager Steven Pettigrew in Airdrie in April 2004.
Derek Ferguson, Black’s cousin, was jailed for the murder after stabbing Steven, 16, to death at Chapelside Primary School. Black admitted punching and kicking the youngster.
Ferguson had won an appeal of his 2005 conviction because the original trial judge failed to tell the jury they could return the lesser verdict of culpable homicide. But in 2009, he was jailed for life for the murder of Steven. Following Black’s death, which came 20 months into his five-year sentence for threatening the two witnesses in his brother’s trial, a former victim of his told the Advertiser’s sister paper the Daily Record: “He [Black] has been involved in so mu much violence in his long criminal career, it is ironic that he has died from natural causes. He was a big deal in the drugs world. Black was supplying Airdrie with cocaine and heroin after terrorising other dealers into giving up.
“It’s been claimed that he made upwards of £2mfrom his drug dealing.
“He owned houses all over the place.”
The Scottish Prison Service confirmed Black’s death, adding: “Police Scotland have been advised and the matter will be reported to the procurator fiscal.
“Next of kin have been informed and a fatal accident inquiry may be held in due
course.”