Three judges reject pair’s appeal
A onsie-wearing yob and his pal who chased a man and slashed him with a Stanley knife will remain behind bars after a court rejected their appeal against conviction.
Lawyers acting for Kyle McCrae and Jamie Anderson claimed that eye witness evidence given by two 14-year-old girls at the original Paisley Sheriff Court trial was unreliable.
However, last week judges sitting at the appeal court rejected the bid to quash the conviction, insisting that the jury was perfectly entitled to accept the schoolgirls’ evidence and return a guilty verdict.
McCrae, 22, and Anderson, 20, chased Barri Mason down a lane between Charles Avenue and High Street, Renfrew during a dispute over girlfriends in February 2016.
The victim was kicked from behind by Anderson, causing him to fall to the ground.
The thug then set about kicking and punching Mr Mason, before McCrae joined in, slashing him on the face with the blade.
The fight was witnessed by the two young girls, who reported what they had seen to police immeditely afterwards.
However, despite suffering significant injuries, Mr Mason was reluctant to help officers investigating the attack.
Issuing their judgement, Lord Brodie, Lord Drummond Young and Lord Turnball explained that the appeals were presented on the basis that identification evidence was so weak that no reasonable jury could have been satisfied that McCrae and Anderson carried out the attack.
But refering to evidence given by one of the young girls, refered to only as VL, the judgement pointed out: “We do not consider that this was so.
“While her identification was subject to criticism and she accepted that she might have been mistaken, VL did offer definite identifications of each of the appellants.”
It also went on: “We were not impressed by Ms Mitchell’s (McCrae’s lawyer) criticism that VL was unable to explain what it was about the appearance of the two males that allowed her to make an identification.
“We would suppose that that is a commonplace circumstance. Even the most articulate of persons might find it difficult to describe the features which have led her to recognise someone.
“Similarly, we do not consider that VL’s acceptance that the males had their hoods up and that she did not see their faces but their hair, can be taken too far. VL was close to the attackers during the attack.
“It may be supposed that she had the opportunity to view the attackers from a number of perspectives in the course of the incident.
“The identifications by VL had to considered critically, as the sheriff directed the jury they should be, in our opinion the jury were not bound to find the identifications other than reliable. It certainly cannot be said that there was no credible and reliable evidence which would have entitled the jury to return a guilty verdict.”
McCrae and Anderson will each serve the remainder of the three-year prison sentences imposed at the end of the original trial.
Barri Mason died on March 19 this year. His death is in no way connected to this incident.