Gang f ight killer who found God in jail now a minister
Garry Brotherston was 19 when he was sentenced to life imprisonment after killing 40-year-old Billy Barclay by stabbing him in the neck.
Brotherston, 43, claimed he found God while behind bars and trained to become a cleric following his release in 2005. Last month, his conversion from violent criminal to man of the cloth was completed when he was inducted as minister for the Free Church at Bishopbriggs, near Glasgow.
Last night, the church hailed his story as ‘living proof of how the Gospel of Jesus can transform someone into a new person’, but Mr Barclay’s heartbroken widow said she could never forgive her husband’s murderer.
Recalling Mr Barclay’s murder, Brotherston says he still begs to this day for God’s forgiveness.
‘I’m a sinner. I’m one of the worst sinners,’ he said. ‘I’ve taken somebody’s life and if God offers somebody like me forgiveness, that’s amazing.
‘I wish I could do anything to bring that guy’s life back. I know I need God’s forgiveness because I sometimes don’t forgive myself.
‘But the crime, although I’ve got to live with it for the rest of my life, was 24 years ago.’
Mr Barclay was fatally wounded in a running battle in the street as he and his brothers returned from the pub. He was attacked with an axe before Brotherston plunged a knife into his neck.
Mr Barclay’s brother Stephen was also assaulted in the attack.
Brotherston originally denied murder but he and a second man, Edward Lyon, were found guilty by a unanimous jury verdict following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow. When Lyon later appealed his sentence, Brotherston admitted his guilt and told the Court of Criminal Appeal that he alone was responsible for the murder. The court rejected Lyon’s appeal.
Brotherston, now married with children, said: ‘While inside, I was attending prison fellowship meetings. In the first instance I went for myself. I needed to be forgiven.
‘I didn’t turn my life around. I would give the glory to God for that. I don’t take any credit. Jesus does change people’s lives. I’ve made mistakes. I was inside.
‘I wrecked a victim’s family’s life. I took my own family to hell and back. It changed my life.
‘It’s a long time but it never goes away. But I don’t expect the victim’s family’s forgiveness because I have hurt them to a degree more than I could ever appreciate.’
But Mr Barclay’s widow Christine, 64, of Erskine, Renfrewshire, told the Scottish Sun on Sunday: ‘I will never forgive him. He knows what he’s done.
‘He has ruined my life, my whole family’s life and my husband’s family’s life. Let him think about that. If he was thinking of the victim’s family he would never have murdered my husband.’
The Free Church said Brotherston and his family moved to Bishopbriggs in 2013 and he started working for the presbytery.
He was inducted as a minister at a ceremony at the nearby Colston Wellpark Church on September 28. The church said the bigger building was needed to accommodate ‘the large number of people who were expected to attend’.
Announcing the news, a statement to worshippers said: ‘Garry is highly and uniquely gifted but
‘I will never forgive him’
he still needs the congregation, with its gifts and talents, to work with him and to pray with him..’
The church added the new minister was a ‘work in progress’.
At his ordination, Reverend Norman MacKay said it was ‘wonderful’ to have Brotherston as a ‘friend and helper.
In 2007, Brotherston spoke at Bethesda Evangelical Church in Helensburgh, Argyll, about his time in prison. Two years later, he sparked anger among Mr Barclay’s family after appearing on the BBC’s Songs of Praise at St Michael’s Parish Church in Linlithgow, West Lothian.
A spokesman for the Free Church said Brotherston had been open about his past at every stage of his training, adding: ‘We are fully aware of the darkness and hopelessness of Garry’s past but the Garry that we know today is a totally changed man.
‘Garry is living proof of how the gospel of Jesus can transform someone into a new person.’