The father of Michael Ross has repeated his claim that his schoolboy son did not shoot dead a Bangladeshi waiter in a racist attack on Orkney in 1994.
Eddie Ross has been speaking in a television documentary to be broadcast on Monday evening.
He says his son is innocent and does not believe there was evidence to convict him of carrying out the murder when he was just 15.
Eddie Ross said: “I was watching him because of what was being suggested and alleged to see if there was anything that was out of the norm but he was just his normal self.
“A 15-year-old boy, plain and simple – certainly not somebody who would walk into a packed restaurant and gun down a young man.”
The cold blooded shooting of waiter Shamsuddin Mahmood in 1994 sent shockwaves through Orkney.
It was the first murder on the island for quarter of a century.
For 14 years the case was unsolved but in 2008 Iraqi war hero Michael Ross was convicted of his racist killing.
Ross, now 33, is currently serving at least 25 years behind bars. His father Eddie says he remains upbeat.
He said: “He is fine, physically and mentally. He is quite a laid back chap.
“He gets on well with the staff and inmates. He is married with two young girls, they are growing up and I don’t need to explain what that is about.”
After hearing the verdict Ross leapt from the dock at High Court in Glasgow in a bid to escape.
It later emerged he'd hired a car which was parked in a nearby supermarket car park.
Inside were a machine pistol and three hand grenades.
In 1997 former police officer Eddie Ross served two years in jail for hindering the investigation into the shooting, Michael Ross was named as the prime suspect at his trial.
In the documentary Shamsuddin Mahmood's brother is in no doubts that this was a race hate crime.
Witness: The School Boy Assassin is on the Crime & Investigation Network on Monday at 10pm.
To leave a comment, please sign in.