‘Wicked’ Trainspotting assassin gets 28 years
Hitman convicted of gunning down actor outside his home for £10,000
A HITMAN has been jailed for life for the ‘cowardly and wicked’ murder of T2 Trainspotting actor Bradley Welsh.
Sean Orman, 30, crept up behind his 48year-old victim and shot him in the head outside his home.
Mr Welsh, a former boxer and gym boss, lay dying in the street while his oblivious partner and young child were inside the property on Chester Street, in Edinburgh’s New Town.
Orman opened fire from only three feet away on the evening of April 17, 2019, the High Court in Edinburgh heard.
Jurors took only a few hours to convict Orman of murder following a 12-day trial.
He was also found guilty of the attempted murder of businessman David McMillan, 50, in a machete attack.
The court was told Orman had been paid £10,000 to kill Mr Welsh and was allegedly given the cash by a man named George Baigrie – who was also alleged to have paid
Orman to attack Mr McMillan at his home in Morningside, Edinburgh, on March 13, 2019.
Judge Lord Beckett jailed Orman for a minimum of 28 years for murder and ten years for attempted murder, to run concurrently.
He said: ‘The murder of Bradley Welsh was a premeditated and meticulously planned assassination... to shoot an unarmed man as he approached his own house was cowardly and wicked.
‘I have read the impact of all this on his partner, who describes the traumatic impact of what you did.
‘[The family] have lost their home and no longer feel safe.’
He added: ‘There can be no mitigation for such a dreadful crime... the court must do all it can to deter contract killings by imposing severe punishment.’
Orman had denied all charges and claimed he had been cycling alone in Kirknewton, West Lothian, at the time of the shooting.
CCTV footage, eye-witness testimony, forensic evidence were all presented to the court.
Yesterday, the Crown Office released a picture of a shotgun found during the probe. The weapon, found in Lanarkshire, in a garden shed belonging to a friend of Orman, matched a witness’s description of the ‘old-fashioned’ gun used in the killing.
Ballistics experts said the sawnoff shotgun was made in Belgium between the 1890s and 1960s.
They also found that the gunshot and material from it ‘matched’ cartridges found at a house linked to Orman, and samples recovered from Welsh’s body.
Orman was arrested after a police chase through Edinburgh that hit speeds of up to 123mph.
The court heard he had been released from jail in February 2019, after being sentenced to five years for armed robbery.
Ian Duguid, QC, defending, told Lord Beckett his client had consistently denied the charges.
Orman, who wore a face mask in court, looked impassive as the verdicts were delivered.
Lord Beckett told jurors these were ‘entirely justified on the evidence you have heard’.
Mr Welsh found fame in T2 Trainspotting as gangland boss Doyle, who puts the frighteners on Renton (Ewan McGregor) and Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller).
He was also a friend of Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh.
After the guilty verdict, Assistant Chief Constable Judi Heaton said: ‘Sean Orman carried out the brutal, premeditated and targeted murder of Bradley Welsh. I hope today’s conviction and sentence helps to bring his family some degree of comfort.’