ban freekmasons
05-10-2008, 10:24 AM
IS MASONIC TERROR BEHIND ORKNEY SHOOTING?
Exclusive: Orkney waiter shooting witness tells of death threat ordeal
THE witness who brought Orkney race-hate assassin Michael Ross to justice is being terrorised by death threats. William Grant ended the 14-year fight to nail the murderer of Bangladeshi waiter Shamsuddin Mahmood when he told how he saw 15-year-old Ross with a gun on the night of the shooting in 1994. But yesterday, William told the Record that some islanders have viciously turned on him since his evidence put Ross behind bars. And he admitted: "I wish now that I'd left it alone.
"I'm like a prisoner in my home. I don't go out at night. I'm too scared. "I feel like I'm on a very thin layer of ice."
Dad of four William, 51, added: "I've had quite a few death threats. The first was from a lad in his 20s in a pub. "As he walked by, he said, 'By the way, there's a price on your head.' "It was sheer fear, terror. Thankfully I was sitting down as my legs turned to jelly. "I got someone else to phone the police and went to the toilet and cried."
William also told how he was assaulted in a local supermarket by a woman he went to school with. He recalled: "She grabbedme by the arm and called me a few unprintable names. She made it clear it was to do with the court case." In a third incident, William was walking down a Kirkwall street when a man told him he would be "the next b****** to be shot". William says sinister letters have also been sent to his home in Stromness.
Ross's father Eddy claims his son is the innocent victim of a plot involving police and the freemasons. And a letter sent to William last week included a masonic emblem, along with his name and the name of an officer from the murder inquiry. William admits he had masonic links to the officer but strongly denies that freemasonry had anything to do with his decision to give evidence. He said he was stunned by the letter and felt threatened by it.
The letter was the second William had received. The first contained a press cutting from the trial, with his name highlighted. William said both letters were in the same type of envelope. He added: "They were both handwritten and it looked like someone had used the wrong hand." Northern Constabulary are investigating William's complaints. He says many islanders have backed his decision to testify.
William saw Ross with a gun in a public toilet in Kirkwall in June 1994, shortly before the assassin walked into the Mumutaz tandoori restaurant and shot Shamsuddin, 26, in the face in front of horrified diners. Ross didn't even know his victim. His only motive was racial hatred. He had been heard saying: "Blacks should be shot." Terrified by what he had seen, William kept silent for 12 years. Then, two years ago, he wrote an anonymous letter to police to tell them about his encounter with Ross.
A civilian police worker recognised him as he delivered the letter by hand and he was persuaded to give evidence in court. Ross, who joined the Black Watch after the murder and served as a sniper in Iraq, was convicted in June this year. After the verdict, he leapt from the dock and tried to escape through a side door as his counsel Donald Findlay QC yelled, "No Michael! No!"
Ross, now 30, was tackled by a court official and taken to the cells. He is due to be sentenced next month. The gunman's father, a policeman in Kirkwall at the time of the murder, has already served time in jail for helping him cover his tracks. Eddy Ross had a stash of bullets in his house of the type used in the shooting but failed to tell his bosses about them. He was jailed for four years in 1997 for hindering the investigation.
Source: http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2008/09/18/exclusive-orkney-waiter-shooting-witness-tells-of-death-threat-ordeal-86908-20741306/
Exclusive: Orkney waiter shooting witness tells of death threat ordeal
THE witness who brought Orkney race-hate assassin Michael Ross to justice is being terrorised by death threats. William Grant ended the 14-year fight to nail the murderer of Bangladeshi waiter Shamsuddin Mahmood when he told how he saw 15-year-old Ross with a gun on the night of the shooting in 1994. But yesterday, William told the Record that some islanders have viciously turned on him since his evidence put Ross behind bars. And he admitted: "I wish now that I'd left it alone.
"I'm like a prisoner in my home. I don't go out at night. I'm too scared. "I feel like I'm on a very thin layer of ice."
Dad of four William, 51, added: "I've had quite a few death threats. The first was from a lad in his 20s in a pub. "As he walked by, he said, 'By the way, there's a price on your head.' "It was sheer fear, terror. Thankfully I was sitting down as my legs turned to jelly. "I got someone else to phone the police and went to the toilet and cried."
William also told how he was assaulted in a local supermarket by a woman he went to school with. He recalled: "She grabbedme by the arm and called me a few unprintable names. She made it clear it was to do with the court case." In a third incident, William was walking down a Kirkwall street when a man told him he would be "the next b****** to be shot". William says sinister letters have also been sent to his home in Stromness.
Ross's father Eddy claims his son is the innocent victim of a plot involving police and the freemasons. And a letter sent to William last week included a masonic emblem, along with his name and the name of an officer from the murder inquiry. William admits he had masonic links to the officer but strongly denies that freemasonry had anything to do with his decision to give evidence. He said he was stunned by the letter and felt threatened by it.
The letter was the second William had received. The first contained a press cutting from the trial, with his name highlighted. William said both letters were in the same type of envelope. He added: "They were both handwritten and it looked like someone had used the wrong hand." Northern Constabulary are investigating William's complaints. He says many islanders have backed his decision to testify.
William saw Ross with a gun in a public toilet in Kirkwall in June 1994, shortly before the assassin walked into the Mumutaz tandoori restaurant and shot Shamsuddin, 26, in the face in front of horrified diners. Ross didn't even know his victim. His only motive was racial hatred. He had been heard saying: "Blacks should be shot." Terrified by what he had seen, William kept silent for 12 years. Then, two years ago, he wrote an anonymous letter to police to tell them about his encounter with Ross.
A civilian police worker recognised him as he delivered the letter by hand and he was persuaded to give evidence in court. Ross, who joined the Black Watch after the murder and served as a sniper in Iraq, was convicted in June this year. After the verdict, he leapt from the dock and tried to escape through a side door as his counsel Donald Findlay QC yelled, "No Michael! No!"
Ross, now 30, was tackled by a court official and taken to the cells. He is due to be sentenced next month. The gunman's father, a policeman in Kirkwall at the time of the murder, has already served time in jail for helping him cover his tracks. Eddy Ross had a stash of bullets in his house of the type used in the shooting but failed to tell his bosses about them. He was jailed for four years in 1997 for hindering the investigation.
Source: http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2008/09/18/exclusive-orkney-waiter-shooting-witness-tells-of-death-threat-ordeal-86908-20741306/