McDonald goes about pushing people around and attacking them, so there are lots of folk with grudges
Jail probe after hitman has throat slashed following claims he threatened coke king
ONE of Scotland’s most notorious gangsters is scarred for life after his neck was slashed in jail.
Hitman James McDonald needed 30 stitches to the wound, which narrowly missed a main artery.
He was attacked in Glenochil Prison weeks after he allegedly issued a threat to drug baron Mark Richardson, who is serving eight years at Saughton jail in Edinburgh.
Police investigating the attack on McDonald are questioning lifer Jason Kinnaird, who previously killed an innocent man by stabbing him in the neck.
It is understood that an alleged attacker admitted to wardens in the jail near Alloa that he had been paid to slash McDonald, a hitman serving at least 35 years.
It was reported last month that McDonald had threatened his old crime pal Richardson, 31, after he found out that he had tried to woo his former girlfriend.
A source said: “The jail bosses are aware of McDonald threatening his former associate Richardson and that will be getting investigated. “McDonald goes about the jail pushing people around, threatening them and attacking them, so there are plenty of people with grudges. “Richardson is cut out of the same cloth but he is on a higher level, at the top end of things, and he is basically running his affairs out of Saughton.
“After stories of threats
emerged, Richardson would not have been the type to take them lying down.
“The guy that is on the frame for this latest stabbing would probably have drug debts that will have been sorted out and he will basically be protected by affiliates of whoever ordered the attack for as long as he is in jail.”
McDonald and Richardson know each other through close associations with the Daniel crime gang, who have waged Scotland’s bloodiest turf war with the rival Lyons gang in the northside of Glasgow.
In 2008, McDonald was sentenced to 35 years – the longest prison term in Scottish legal history – for a 2006 gangland hit at a Glasgow MOT station, which resulted in Michael Lyons being killed and two rivals hurt.
In 2016, McDonald had another nine years added to his sentence for attempting to murder a fellow prisoner.
And last year, he had two years and 10 months added on for another assault and for being concerned in the supply of heroin.
In January this year, Richardson, 31, was sentenced to eight years for the role he played in a hardcore organised crime gang who flooded Scotland’s streets with guns and drugs.
Last month, he had 18 months added to his term for leading police in a high-speed chase in Glasgow which involved a force helicopter in December 2016.
In 2010, Richardson was jailed for 10 years after a major operation led to the seizure of £2million of cocaine and heroin.
He was part of a nine-man gang who were sentenced to a total of 87 years after a huge investigation into organised crime.
Officers found a handgun loaded with 15 bullets when they arrested Richardson in Baillieston, Glasgow, in January 2017. He later pled guilty to firearms offences
The coke kingpin, from Edinburgh, is a close associate of gangland figure Steven “Bonzo” Daniel, who was the victim of a machete attack last May. Nine men were charged in connection with the attack.
At the time, Kinnaird had 51 previous convictions, including two for serious assault.
Richardson would not have been the type to take stories of threats lying down PRISON SOURCE ON JAILED DRUG BARON
Kinnaird, 37, is a drug addict with an appalling record of violence. In 2010, he was jailed for a minimum of 17 years after he stabbed his friend Johnny Moran four times, severing his jugular vein, at a flat in Rosyth, Fife.