Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
JUSTICE CATCHES UP WITH KILLER
Found guilty of murder from 1999
A Coatbridge man is facing life behind bars after a jury convicted him of murdering his former brother-in-law in the town almost 17 years ago.
James McGowan – father of former Hearts footballer Ryan McGowan – was found guilty of stabbing Owen Brannigan in a house on Bankhead Avenue in November 1999.
The 58-year-old, who is originally from Coatbridge, was extradited from Australia last year to stand trial on murder and assault charges.
At Edinburgh High Court last week, jurors took 24 hours to deliver a unanimous guilty verdict and also convict McGowan of head- butting Brannigan’s cousin Thomas Duggan.
The attack on Thomas came just a few hours before McGowan inflicted 11 stab wounds on Owen, who was once married to McGowan’s sister Carol.
Judge Lady Scott deferred sentence for a character report on McGowan, but warned him he’ll be spending the rest of his life behind bars, saying: “There is only one sentence which I can impose in a case with this charge – that is life. However, I must also fix a punishment part to your sentence – the punishment part is the sentence you must serve before you become eligible for parole.
“I will, therefore, defer sentence and you will be brought before me again at a hearing next month.”
McGowan and his wife had emigrated to Australia in 1980 and the boilermaker had returned to visit family in Coatbridge.
There was bad feeling between the McGowan family and Brannigan, who had served in the Royal Navy and had divorced from McGowan’s sister Carol in 1984 after nine years of marriage. The court heard that McGowan believed Brannigan had raped a woman – but police found no evidence for this.
However, prosecutors believe that this mistaken belief was McGowan’s motive for attacking Owen.
Police immediately identified McGowan as the No1 suspect and contacted the Australian authorities in a bid to bring him back to Scotland, but Scottish prosecutors felt there wasn’t enough evidence to bring him to court.
The breakthrough in the case came in 2012 when McGowan’s marriage fell apart and he called mental health charity On the Line and confessed that he was a murderer.
During his week- long trial, McGowan denied all wrong-doing and blamed Thomas Stewart, who lived at the house of the murder. Prosecutors couldn’t find any evidence to link Stewart to the crime.
Speaking after the case, Owen’s sister Bernadette said the verdicts had brought her family closure.
She added: “I just want to move on from this and be rid of the animosity between both families. It has torn us all apart.”