Murder accomplice has sentence cut

A MAN who provided a sawn-off shotgun used to blast a former boxing champion to death in the Marmion pub has had his minimum sentence cut.

A trial heard that roofer Bernard Young, 23, had stolen the weapon months earlier from a house where he was working.

Young, of Southhouse, Edinburgh, was also supposed to be the getaway driver after a double shooting at the Marmion in the Gracemount area of the city in April 2006 but panicked and fled.

A jury decided that although Jamie Bain, then 22, pulled the trigger, Young was guilty of murder and attempted murder because of his part.

Ex-boxer Alex McKinnon, 32, was shot in the back. His brother-in-law, James Hendry, then 27, was left badly wounded.

Trial judge Lord Uist gave Young a life sentence and ordered him to serve at least 19-and-a-half years.

A third man, Richard Cosgrove, then 20, was given a minimum sentence of 20 years after going into the bar with Bain.

The Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh later cut Cosgrove's sentence to 16 years after hearing he was terrified of Bain.

Yesterday appeal judges agreed that "comparative justice" also required a reduction in Young's sentence to 17 years.