Murderer’s legal f ight over passive smoking in prison cell
A GANGLAND murderer has launched a legal bid against the Scottish Government for failing to protect him from passive smoking.
A lawyer for William Gage, who was jailed for a minimum of 20 years for gunning down a man outside his home, likened his judicial review to the notorious sloppingout cases which cost taxpayers £8million in only three years.
But he claimed all Gage wanted was to be moved to a smoke-free part of the prison. The killer, who has a history of legal bids, having lodged two unsuccessful appeals, has been held at Shotts since 2004.
In 2006, smoking was banned in Scottish prisons, except in cells. But Gage says smoke drifts from other cells, collects in communal areas and drifts into his cell.
His action claims this has been harmful to his health, adding that Gage’s father smoked and died from lung cancer, and he fears contracting the disease.
Gage’s counsel, Christopher Pirie, told the Court of Session: ‘All he seeks is to be held in part of one of the 15 prisons which the respondents [the Scottish ministers] control in which he is not exposed indoors to ETS [environmental tobacco smoke].
‘In my submission, the evidence shows that the respondents have detained the petitioner for more than a decade in conditions they correctly believe to be unsafe, without taking steps to look for an alternative.’
Mr Pirie added that the detention was ‘an unreasonable exer- cise’ of the Scottish Government’s statutory powers, and said an analogy could be drawn with the case of Robert Napier.
Career criminal Napier was jailed for kidnapping a woman and a schoolgirl during a knifepoint hijacking. He won £2,450 after arguing that slopping-out – being given buckets to use as toilets overnight – breached his
‘His father died from lung cancer’
human rights. His victim, Margaret Zambonini, received just £1,000 compensation for the trauma she suffered when he hijacked her ice cream van.
Scottish ministers are contesting Gage’s judicial review.
A Scottish Prison Service spokesman said: ‘We took the position in 2006 that prisoners could smoke in their cells as they were their own, private accommodation. Wherever possible, we do not co-locate smokers and non-smokers in the same cells.’
The court was told that Gage was housed in a relatively modern prison with ventilation systems. Support was offered to prisoners wishing to kick the smoking habit.
Gage was jailed for life for the 2002 killing of Justin McAlroy, 30 – dubbed the Red Rose gangster – who was shot at his home in Cambuslang, Lanarkshire, by a lone hitman six days after mingling with former First Minister Jack McConnell and John Reid at a Labour fundraiser in Motherwell, Lanarkshire.
Gage has always denied involvement. He was charged after his DNA was found in a burnt-out car in Easterhouse, Glasgow, on the night of the shooting.
He has already cost the taxpayer more than £123,000 in legal aid. According to the Scottish Legal Aid Board, he ran up a £99,481 legal aid bill in the initial trial in 2004. His first appeal cost £15,993 in fees, and the second £8,092.
In 2012, a bench of five judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh rejected former Territorial Army soldier Gage’s l atest appeal against the murder conviction, which had been referred to them by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission.
The appeal j udges heard that the victim was a man with contacts and enemies in the criminal world. He was shot five times in the head, chest, arm and leg in the fatal attack.
Gage’s minimum jail t erm i s not due to expire until 2023. Lord Armstrong will give a decision in the judicial review case later.