‘When he addresses you, he will impress you with his air of confidence. He will sound very plausible. His presentation has all the art and craft of a great Shakespearean actor. Do not be taken in by it. What you and I are concerned with is substance, not packaging. With evidence. With facts. We are concerned only with the quality of the merchandise, not the glitz of the window dressing. From me, there will be no flowery language, no dramatics, amateur or otherwise, only facts, hard facts to demonstrate that the accused is beyond doubt guilty of the crime of murder.’

Muirhead’s eyes bored into his opponent’s back. The battle lines had been clearly drawn. Matthews was determined to obtain a conviction and was not about to let anything or anyone stand in his way. His initial onslaught against Muirhead had nothing whatsoever to do with the evidence in the case. It was a blatant attempt to discredit in advance and to portray Muirhead as all wind and no substance. He was trying to tell the jury that he was going to present them with the facts whereas the defence would seek to confuse the issue and bury the facts as far out of sight as possible. In that, he was absolutely right. But it was still unusual for a prosecutor to directly criticise defence counsel in so pointed a fashion. Matthews was out to win.

Muirhead glanced down at a piece of paper which had been passed to him.

‘How are the knife wounds in your back?’

He scribbled a reply and returned the note to Donald Anderson.

‘He has made the mistake of leaving his knife between my shoulder blades. It will be my pleasure to work it right up his...’.

Anderson smiled.

Muirhead returned his attention to the Advocate Depute.

Matthews had invited the jury to look at their copies of the indictment and was explaining to the jurors the law’s requirements for the crime of murder to be established.

‘You may think, ladies and gentlemen, that if a man walks up to a motor car and empties a hand gun into his victim’s head, this demonstrates a clear, determined, premeditated intention to take life in a cold, callous and brutal fashion. This is as plain a case of murder, indeed, evil murder, as you would ever wish to see.’

Matthews delivered the last sentence, slowly and deliberately, carefully enunciating every single syllable, reserving special emphasis for the word ‘murder.’

‘It is the Crown’s position that Charles Gallagher walked to the BMW, produced a gun and fired it into Kevin Boyle’s head, killing him instantly. He was driven to and from the scene by a person whose identity is for the time being unknown. Thereafter, the gun was disposed of and unfortunately has not been recovered.