Who will run family cannabis business if killer’s missus is locked up?

Wife admits growing drug months after he was jailed

A MURDERER’S wife is facing jail for running his drug business while he was behind bars – for the same crime. Karen McLellan was caught growing cannabis at her home in September, just six months after husband Gavin Toye was locked up. She pled guilty to growing the Class B drug when she appeared at Paisley Sheriff Court yesterday. McLellan was bailed to await sentence next month and could be sentenced to up to a year behind bars. Toye, 56, had embarked on the doomed drug racket at their house in Bishopton, Renfrewshire, after being released from prison following his murder conviction. But when 57-year-old McLellan came under investigation for allegedly stealing £200 cash from her work at a discount store, a police search turned up the £20,000 drug farm in their loft. During the search, the officers smelled the cannabis and Toye, who was in the front bedroom, admitted: “There’s a cultivation in the loft.” When officers searched the loft, they found 69 plants, fans, insulation, plant food and heaters. There were 30 junior plants, 16 medium-sized plants and 23 large plants, which police drug experts said were worth a total of £19,320.

Toye pled guilty in March last year to growing cannabis at their home and dealing it – and was caged for 35 months at Paisley Sheriff Court.

But it has now emerged McLellan kept the business going.

She was represented by defence solicitor Tony Callahan during yesterday’s short hearing, at which prosecutor Pamela Flynn did not give details of the crime.

Sheriff Susan Sinclair said: “I’m going to need to get a criminal justice social work report.

“You will need to go to an interview with social workers and come back on the date that you’re about to be given.”

Toye was jailed for life in 1995 for hacking 27-year-old John McRae to death with a mountaineering axe and a knife as he left a pub.

He was released in 2008, after just 13 years, and later married Karen.

Mounted police patrolled outside the High Court in Glasgow on June 30, 1995, when Toye, then 34, was jailed for life.

Extra police were also drafted in after fights broke out in the streets outside between rival groups the previous day.

The murder victim’s mum, Elizabeth McRae said there was a feud between Toye and his friends and two local brothers who were friends of her son.