So who did try to kill these brave officers?
A hero PC saved his injured partner from a hit-and-run attack. DNA put two men with a string of criminal convictions in the dock, only for a jury to find the case not proven...
T HE blue Nissan Qashqai had been moving about suspiciously even before the police patrol car drew up that October night. As PCs Debbie Lawson and Robert Fitzsimmons stepped out and approached the driver’s open window, the still of the autumn air was broken only by the low growl of the SUV.
The officers were responding to what was, on the face of it, a routine call-out over a disturbance in a cul-de-sac of low rise flats in Glasgow’s Knightswood area. But there was something sinister about the lurking presence of that Nissan.
Within seconds of confronting the driver, PC Lawson was pitched into a terrifying fight for her very life, clinging onto the Qashqai as its ruthless occupants used it as a devastating weapon to evade capture.
The officer fought back tears as she told a court how she was dragged almost 50ft as the driver fought her off and reversed the Nissan at high speed to make her loosen her grip.
She told the court: ‘I saw a male in the back seat. He was leaning forward and he was trying to move the gearstick. He was trying to put it into gear. I could hear him shouting, “Just drive!” I honestly can’t remember what I was holding onto. I grabbed onto something to stay upright.
‘My next memory is me looking down at my feet. I was getting dragged along the ground. I just remember screaming. It was the only thing I could do to get the driver to stop the car.’
Finally falling to the ground, her head came within an inch of being struck by a wheel of the still-reversing car. Lying badly injured on the tarmac, she heard the car rev its engine and head towards her.
‘I was in agony and I couldn’t move,’ she said. ‘I just remember PC Fitzsimmons screaming my name. He was screaming, “Debbie!” PC Fitzsimmons grabbed me out of the way. If he didn’t move me, I wouldn’t be here today. I thought I was going to die.’
HER colleague told the court: ‘It’s the most scared I have ever been. PC Lawson’s screams will live with me for the rest of my life. I thought we were both dead.’
The Nissan barrelled away down Banner Drive, smashing into the officers’ patrol car and several other parked cars in its haste to escape.
Witnesses alerted to the unfolding horror by PC Lawson’s screams raced to help from nearby blocks of flats. They brought blankets and clothing to staunch the blood before emergency services arrived and dozens of officers flooded the scene.
The 30-year-old was rushed to intensive care for emergency treatment on internal bleeding and crush injuries, while PC Fitzsimmons, 31, joined her there later after collapsing. The following morning, Debbie Lawson’s half-destroyed protective vest still lay in the street – a visual spur, if any were needed, to drive her colleagues on to catch the perpetrators.
The Qashqai was quickly recovered – a burnt-out husk abandoned less than three miles away. Within days, two men – David McLean, 31, and Ryan Gilmour, 25 – were arrested and later charged with attempted murder. Confidence was high as forensics slowly built a case from evidence gleaned from the crime scene and the Nissan, which was found to be stolen.
Yet eight months on, the mood among officers could scarcely be more despondent. Despite the dramatic testimony of both officers and forensic evidence linking both accused to the Qashqai, McLean and Gilmour walked free following a six-day trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.
After deliberating for barely an hour, the jury acquitted the pair, finding the charges of attempted murder against both McLean and Gilmour ‘not proven’.
It should be understood, of course, that Scots law’s unique and infamous third option carries exactly the same legal weight as not guilty.
But in the minds of the general public there has always been a distinction, that the so-called ‘bastard verdict’ leaves a lingering stain on the character of the accused, who can never enjoy a feeling of total exoneration.
Not that you would know it from the exuberant reaction of the men in the dock – or the scenes of unbridled jubilation, shouting and loud clapping, among their friends and family members sitting on the public benches.
‘Good decision,’ roared one supporter above the exhortations of stern-faced court officials to keep quiet. The shock of the verdict could be read, too, in the slumped forms and slow head-shaking of the senior police officers present.
They already knew what can now be revealed – that McLean was a dangerous career criminal who had been jailed only months before the incident for dangerous driving during a high-speed police chase.
And what of the despairing victims, faced with the unpalatable prospect that no one may ever be called to account for ruining their lives and, most probably, their careers?
They can be forgiven for feeling utterly let down by the rule of law, the one thing they both swore to uphold. After bravely risking their lives in the line of duty, they might reasonably ask, where is the justice?
The Scottish Police Federation, which represents the interests of serving officers, declined to comment, but the sense of despair following the trial is widespread.
‘There is likely to be a buildup of anger in the ranks in the coming days and weeks,’ said one source this week. ‘But the overwhelming feeling is genuine astonishment right now, at the verdict and the apparent speed with which the jury came to its decision.’
The source added: ‘At this time, the officers themselves are actually quite withdrawn and, indeed, don’t want anyone from the police service or their own federation contacting them or dealing with them. That will pass, but they feel deeply let down by the whole process. They are also still trying to come to terms with what happened to them that night and neither are back on full duties at this stage.’
RETURNING to the beat, of course, would be done in the full knowledge that whoever did this to them could be walking the same streets. ‘That would be a significant aggravating factor in any psychological issues that they would have to deal with,’ the source conceded.
They will also have to live with the fact that the case that was brought to court just didn’t add up in the eyes of the only people who matter.
The trial heard PCs Lawson and Fitzsimmons arrived in Banner Drive around 11.15pm on October 23 last year after receiving reports of a disturbance involving youths.
McLean and Gilmour originally faced six charges, which accused them of acting in a disorderly manner, of brandishing knives and bottles and shouting and swearing before pursuing three other men.
Prosecutors also alleged McLean and Gilmour committed a breach of the peace by banging on the door of a house and attempting to gain entry before pouring liquid through the letter box.
The pair were also accused of attempting to pervert the court of justice by wilfully setting fire to the Nissan.
Both accused denied all the charges against them.
Apart from the police officers’ dramatic testimony, key evidence came from a forensic examination of the burnt-out Qashqai which recovered DNA from the boot catch. The court heard the DNA matched that of both Gilmour and McLean.
Officers also discovered a purse in the car, containing a driving licence in the name of Angela Marie McLean and bank cards belonging to an Angela McLean and an AM McLean – the same surname as one of the accused.
McLean’s advocate John McElroy made a no case to answer submission, arguing just because a person’s DNA has been left at a crime scene
does not mean they’ve committed a crime. Judge Lord Summers refused to uphold the submission.
Mr McElroy told the jury there was a reasonable doubt against his client and urged them to acquit. Relatives of the accused made a great show of smoking cigars outside court after the acquittals.
In truth, both McLean and Gilmour are well-known to police. McLean, in particular, has a string of convictions for violence and driving offences. He was jailed for four months at Hamilton Sheriff Court last year after he admitted driving dangerously through numerous Glasgow streets while police tried to get him to stop.
At one point during the chase in September 2015, McLean swerved his Volkswagen Golf onto the other side of the road, causing another driver to take instant evasive action to avoid a collision.
Sheriff Shiona Waldron also banned McLean from driving for two years and ordered him to sit the extended driving test before being allowed back on the roads. McLean has previously served a year at a youth detention facility for attempted murder and was jailed for ten-and-a-half years following a conviction for assault to severe injury, permanent disfigurement and danger of life in 2005.
When police issued an appeal for help in tracing McLean in relation to the latest attack, they warned the public not to approach him.
SCOTTISH Police Federation chairman Brian Docherty questioned ‘why almost 12 hours passed before we were made aware of this horrific incident’ and ‘why the power of traditional and social media was not immediately deployed’ to track the suspects.
Would those crucial hours have helped? We will never know. Just as it is impossible to say whether the existence of the ‘not proven’ verdict swayed the jurors’ minds.
In February 2016, Holyrood’s justice committee suggested that not proven was on ‘borrowed time’ as it caused confusion for jurors and the public. It concluded the verdict could carry a stigma for an accused person as well as fail to provide the necessary closure for victims. Certainly, in this case, the victims appear a long way from closure. PC Fitzsimmons is only well enough to carry out admin duties.
Debbie Lawson suffered a punctured lung, fractured shoulder blade and three broken ribs, but colleagues say the emotional trauma visited upon the motherof-one has taken the greatest toll.
The police source added: ‘At some point, either or both of them may come back to work or neither of them may. It is just the nature of the traumatic events they have been exposed to.’
The chances of their distress being eased through the courts appear slim. The police are not minded to reopen the investigation and a private prosecution, in a case where there has already been a criminal prosecution and an acquittal, seems fanciful.
A Police Scotland spokesman tellingly said: ‘We are not looking for anyone else in connection with this matter.’
In the meantime, PCs Lawson and Fitzsimmons can only hope that whoever did this to them slips up one day and finds themselves behind bars. The fear is that other officers may have to risk their lives before that comes to pass.