SENTENCING STATEMENTS

On sentencing, Lord Harrower said:

“Malcolm McNee, you have pled guilty on the first day of a trial diet to the murder of John Quinn McGregor and to a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice.  The agreed narrative describes you as an associate of the Daniel family and Mr McGregor as having been an associate of the Lyons family.  The Lyons family and the Daniel family are two gangs known to be involved in serious organised crime in Glasgow.  This senseless killing appears to have been the latest instalment in an ongoing feud between the two rival gangs.

It was just before 8pm on Thursday, 26 August 2021: a beautiful, late summer’s evening in the Milton area of Glasgow.  Children were out playing.  You arrived at Westray Street in a white Vauxhall Corsa van.  Westray Street is an area where youths associated with the Lyons family regularly meet.   One of the Lyons’ associates struck the Corsa with a machete.  You got out of the van, brandishing a shotgun.  Youths fled and you returned to the passenger seat.  Meanwhile, Mr McGregor was in another vehicle that appeared to be blocking the Corsa’s path.  The two vehicles managed to pass one another, and that should have been the moment for both of you to move on.  However, the two of you got out of your vehicles and confronted each other in the street.  When Mr McGregor saw you were carrying a shotgun he turned and fled.  He tried to take cover behind parked cars, but you shot him once in the chest, in full view of horrified members of the public.  Mr McGregor staggered and fell to the ground.  People ran to his aid.  Members of the Emergency Medical Retrieval Service carried out open heart surgery in the street before taking Mr McGregor to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.  Meanwhile, having fled the scene, you set fire to the Corsa in an attempt to destroy evidence.  Two days later, Mr McGregor succumbed to his injures. 

The murder of John McGregor was more than just an episode in a turf war between two rival criminal gangs.  He was a father of five children, a grandfather, a son, a brother and an uncle.  You shot him in broad daylight.  You made no attempt to conceal your identity.  You were quite prepared to run the risk that your acts of violence might be witnessed by others.  Your brandishing the shotgun was intended to intimidate and to strike fear into members of the local community, who might even have got hurt in the shooting.  You were arrogant enough to believe that you could carry out this most serious of crimes and never be brought to justice. 

The only sentence I may lawfully impose on you for murder is a life sentence.   However, I also have to specify a period which must pass before you can apply for release on parole.  The period I select is known as the punishment part of the sentence, and its purpose is to satisfy the requirements of retribution and deterrence.  The parole board will deal in due course with the protection of the public.  In fixing the punishment part of your sentence I must take into account the seriousness of the murder combined with the other offence on the indictment of which you have been convicted. 

Mr McNee, you are now 63 years’ old.  You have six previous convictions for a variety of offences, including assault, offences of dishonesty, and for the misuse of drugs, albeit with significant gaps between periods of offending.  I have taken account of everything said on your behalf by Mr McConnachie.  For charge 5, the attempt to pervert the course of justice, I sentence you to a term of imprisonment of 54 months reduced from 5 years to take account of the timing of your plea.  This sentence is to be served concurrently with the sentence of life imprisonment I am about to impose for charge 4.  I am prepared to backdate the sentence to 16 September 2021, when you were remanded in custody, even though 79 days of that period is attributable to a separate sentence imposed on 30 September 2021, following your breach of a community payback order.

If the sentence for charge 5 had stood alone, it would have included a significant component for public protection that must be left out of account when fixing the punishment part of a life sentence.  The court must also allow for the loss of any prospect of early release.  The result is that the extent to which the sentence I have just imposed may contribute to the punishment part of your life sentence is, by law, substantially reduced. 

For charge 4, the murder of John McGregor, I sentence you to life imprisonment.  This sentence will also be backdated to 16 September 2021.  Had I been sentencing you after trial I would have imposed a punishment part of 23 years.  However, in acknowledgement of the modest utilitarian benefit of your plea, I will fix the punishment part at 22 years.”

 Reece Trainer

“Reece Trainer, you pled guilty on the first day of the same trial diet to a charge of having with you a firearm with intent to commit an assault, contrary to sections 18(1) and 18(3) of the Firearms Act 1968, and to a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice. 

You were the driver of the Corsa that took Mr McNee to Westray Street.  You were aware that Mr McNee was armed with a shotgun.  According to the terms of the narrative, you believed it would be used only to ‘warn off’ associates of the Lyons family.  However, whether the shotgun would in fact be used in that way was necessarily something over which you had no control.  You could not have been certain how Mr McNee would use it.  Even if his original intention had been only to warn, you could not have been certain what response Mr McNee might have received from others in the street.  You ran the risk that the situation might escalate, as in fact it did, with disastrous consequences.  You of all people must have been aware of that risk, your own stepfather having also been shot dead in broad daylight.  After the shooting, you assisted Mr McNee to make good his escape.  You collected him in the Corsa, then drove him and the shotgun back to the Carbeth Huts estate where you lived.  You yourself then fled the country, via England and Spain, and eventually to Mexico, where you remained for the next two years. 

Mr Trainer, I have taken account of everything said on your behalf by Mr Ross and the contents of the social work report.  You turned 25 on 6 February 2025, so the guideline for sentencing young persons does not apply to you.  Nevertheless, I have taken your relative youth and immaturity at the time of the offence into account, just as I do the fact that you managed to display sufficient maturity and wherewithal to stay on the run, while abroad, for a significant period of time.   I also acknowledge that you have no previous convictions and were in full-time employment at the time of the offence.  You are a member of the Daniel family but, at the time of the incident, you had not been assessed by Police Scotland as being an active member of any organised crime group.

Nevertheless, the charges to which you have pled guilty are very serious offences.  Although you did not have a leading role, in conveying both the shooter and the shotgun to and from the locus, you assumed a significant degree of culpability in an enterprise that involved, at the very least, a high risk of severe physical injury.  There is no alternative to a lengthy custodial sentence.  For charge 3, had it not been for the timing of your plea, I would have sentenced you to a term of imprisonment of 5 years.  Taking into account the timing of your plea, I will reduce that sentence to one of 54 months, backdated to 17 January 2024 when you were remanded in custody.  For charge 6, I sentence you to a term of imprisonment of 32 months, reduced from 3 years to take account of the timing of your plea.  That sentence will also be backdated to 17 January 2024, and is to be served concurrently with the sentence previously imposed.”

4 April 2025