Police ScotlandTwo killers who teamed up to murder a man in an apparent revenge attack have both been jailed for at least 18 years.
Callum Summers, 29, and Craig McColl, 24, targeted Stuart McGeachie near a pub in Farmeloan Road in Rutherglen, Lanarkshire on October 24, 2023.
The 38-year-old victim was fatally struck once with a machete.
The pair had initially both gone on trial for murder last month.
Police ScotlandSummers was convicted by a jury while McColl had pled guilty to the charge midway through the case.
They were jailed for life at the High Court in Glasgow on Wednesday and both handed the same minimum sentence by Lord Colbeck.
The judge said: “That weapons such as machetes are in everyday circulation is frankly difficult to comprehend
“Their use in the streets of Glasgow are entirely unacceptable in a civilised society – here a man needlessly lost his life.”
Afterwards, there appeared to be a jibe made towards relatives of Mr McGeachie from a supporter of one of the killers as they all left the courtroom.
In his closing speech to jurors at the trial, prosecutor Bill McVicar said the pair had acted together despite only one blow being inflicted.
There was said to have been bad blood – involving violence – between McColl and his father, and Mr McGeachie and his brother.
On the day of the murder, the McGeachies were in Rutherglen when the killers went to McColl’s home to fetch machetes.
Mr McVicar said: “The attack was for revenge, pure and simple. “
Within minutes, they returned and pounced on the victim, who was struck in the neck while he was outside the town’s Victoria Bar.
He staggered into the pub for help as the assailants fled the scene.
Mr McGeachie suffered “catastrophic” blood loss.
Mr McVicar said: “The plan was plainly to do harm to Stuart McGeachie or anyone who got in the way.”
One of the killers was said to have later boasted that Mr McGeachie had been “chopped”.
Summers was heard to tell an associate after the killing that he was “f****d” as he had been identified as being at the scene that day.
He was said to have escaped to Leeds in Yorkshire while also applying for a new passport claiming he had lost his previous one.
He returned to Glasgow, but then tried to get away from police by climbing out a second floor window of a flat in the city’s east end.
Mr McVicar said Summers could not be convicted by “simply being there”.
He instead stated a plan had been “hatched” by both killers who each armed themselves before the attack.
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