Orkney Assassin: Mother haunted by day she confronted killer son

BBC News

6 hours ago

Moira Ross is still haunted, more than three decades later, by the moment she asked her schoolboy son if he had murdered a waiter.Six months earlier, on 2 June 1994, Shamsuddin Mahmood, 26, was killed by a single shot to the head as he served customers in an Indian restaurant in Orkney.Speaking for the first time, she relived the moment she confronted Michael in his bedroom after he was questioned by detectives.Prosecutors initially ruled there was not enough evidence to charge the army cadet with a crime committed when he was just 15 years old.
Michael left the island the following summer and would go on to get married, have a family and become a decorated Black Watch sniper before he was finally brought to justice thanks to an anonymous letter.But in a new documentary, The Orkney Assassin: Murder in the Isles, his parents maintain he is the victim of a miscarriage of justice.Recalling the day Michael, then 16, returned home hungry from the police station his mother said he was "just his normal self".She later went upstairs to his room and described what happened next."I said: 'Did you shoot that man?' and he said 'no' and I just can't..."Ms Ross broke down then continued: "I just can't get over the look on his face when I asked him that."
As well as the cloud of suspicion over her son, the investigation ended the police career of her husband, Eddy.He was jailed in 1997 after lying about the fact he owned bullets identical to the one used in the murder. The documentary includes moving testimony from a witness who was 13 at the time of the shooting.Journalists and a local photographer also reflect on the first homicide on the idyllic group of islands for 25 years and agree it continues to divide the community to this day. Ex-Daily Record reporter Bob Dow said: "To be honest this was more than just a murder."This was a cold blooded public execution carried out on one of the most crime-free parts of the UK."This was like Pulp Fiction meets Whisky Galore."
The night of the shooting
Emma, who was 13 at the time, was in the Mumutaz restaurant in Kirkwall with her parents.But at 19:15 she witnessed something that left her traumatised.She recalled: "I was sitting in one of the window seats next to the door and the door opened."Emma thought it was someone coming to collect a takeaway.She added: "They were quite well built and they sort of had a purposeful march on them."I could not see who it was because they had their face covered."Emma admitted her memory of what happened next was "fragmented".She said: "I remember it was a hand gun and there was a pop."It did not make sense at the time what was happening."Then this person turned round and just walked out."In an instant the restaurant had been transformed into a chaotic crime scene.Emma said: "I remember being so relieved to see the police but safe, happy Orkney was gone."
Photographer Ken Amer said there was "absolute panic" when he arrived on the scene.His black and white images captured stunned staff leaving the restaurant and unfinished meals on the tables, including the one Emma was sitting at with her parents.Mr Amer later realised he had previously photographed the victim while covering a big cheque presentation for The Orcadian newspaper.Looking at the picture of Mr Mahmood, Emma said: "I remember he had a big smile in real life and he was really friendly and kind."I have never been able to make sense of what happened that night."
The investigation
Angus Chisholm was a detective inspector for the then Northern Constabulary in Inverness when he was sent from the Highland capital to Orkney.The following morning he tasked local constable, ex-Black Watch soldier Eddy Ross, with the ballistic side of the investigation.Its focus became the 9mm bullet casing of the single shot which passed through Mr Mahmood's head and became embedded in the wall.Ross quickly identified the round as one previously used by the British Army.As the inquiry continued a reconstruction of the murder featured on the BBC's Crimewatch UK.But, unlike most TV appeals, detectives had no description of the gunman, who entered and left the restaurant without uttering a word.Mr Mahmood's brother, A.K.M Shafiuddin, remembered him as a "kind hearted person" and told the programme he planned to marry his girlfriend, who was a medical student.Locals wrestled with various theories but inquiries on the island and in the waiter's native Bangladesh drew a blank.Mr Chisholm said: "Nobody had a bad word to say about Shamsuddin."
Two months after the murder police finally got a breakthrough.As he finished a night shift Ross informed Mr Chisholm that he had discovered a box of the same 9mm bullets used in the murder - in his own home.The father-of-three said he had been given the box - which was still sealed - by ex-marine Jim Spence.But when Mr Spence was questioned he said he handed over two boxes to PC Ross - one sealed and one half full.In a separate development, a mother and daughter reported they had seen a masked male acting suspiciously in Papdale Woods, a fortnight before the murder.They alerted officers when they spotted the same individual going into a baker's in Kirkwall.It was Michael Ross - the teenage son of PC Ross.Eddy told the documentary: "Basically from that point in time the finger was pointing towards us."When Michael was interviewed he initially said he did not know anything about the woods and was with two friends on the night of the murder.But when officers checked out his alibi it didn't stand up.
Michael's mother Moira said: "I was very nervous when they thought Michael was a suspect."He has never been in trouble with the police."He's never been in the Indian restaurant. Ever."In a separate twist, Mr Spence told police he had not mentioned the missing box of bullets as PC Ross had visited him three times and asked him not to.Asked if he had told his friend to lie about the bullets, Ross said: "No. We had conversations on the street and has he mistaken what I said?"I had no reason to ask him that."Officers obtained a search warrant for the family home and discovered a notebook in Michael's room with swastikas scribbled on it.On 6 December 1994 the 16-year-old was taken from school and interviewed under caution without a lawyer.Ms Ross, who was at work at the time, said: "We were just in shock, I suppose, because I was sure he would never do anything like that." Mr Chisholm said the teenager was unfazed by the gravity of the allegations.He added: "He was cool, calm and collected."The senior officer filed a report to the Crown Office but prosecutors decided there was not enough evidence to charge the teenager.
Long wait for justice
Michael left school in 1995 and joined the Army before being assigned to his father's old regiment, the Black Watch.Meanwhile, PC Ross was suspended from Northern Constabulary after being charged with perverting the course of justice for asking Mr Spence to lie for him.On 20 May 1997, after a trial in Inverness, he was jailed for three years and his 23-year police career was in ruins.Eddy, who served two years in prison then became an undertaker, said: "With hindsight I should have dumped the box of ammunition and it is much my regret that I did not."But for me ditching it would not have been right, from my way of thinking, so which way do you turn?"
Meanwhile, his corporal son was mentioned in dispatches for showing bravery following two improvised explosive attacks in North Babi, Iraq.But in 2006, 12 years after the murder, the cold case took a fresh twist when an anonymous letter was handed in to Kirkwall police station.Its author, later identified as local man William Grant, claimed to have seen the killer coming out of a public toilet cubicle on the night of the murder.The new evidence was enough to finally arrest Ross and he went on trial at the High Court in Glasgow in May 2008.But Brian McConnachie KC, who led the prosecution, said he did not anticipate Mr Grant would be "such an unreliable witness". Under cross examination he admitted that he made up some of the things he originally told police.
Escape from the dock
Leah Seator, editor of The Orcadian, said many people on the island thought Ross would walk free.But on 20 June the jury returned a guilty verdict - only for the moment to be overshadowed by an audacious escape attempt.As he was about to be led away Ross knocked over a security guard, and jumped out of the dock.He pulled open a side door but was eventually stopped in a court corridor.Mr McConnachie said: "I have been doing this for 40 years and I have never seen such a dramatic end to a trial."Back in Orkney, Mrs Ross took a devastating call from her husband.She said: "I did not believe that he would be sent to prison."When Ross returned to court four months later, amid heightened security, he was sentenced to 25 years plus a further five for his brazen bid to flee.Lord Hardie told the killer he had carried out a "premeditated assassination" motivated by "extreme racist prejudice". Since Ross' conviction his family have urged anyone with new evidence to come forward and in 2018 they appointed campaigning lawyer Aamer Anwar.Four years later the former corporal was convicted of his third prison escape attempt after he tried to climb a fence at HMP Shotts in Lanarkshire.Eddy said: "It has not been easy but we have got to try and see if we can get him released a bit earlier."Mr McConnachie said the sad thing about the case was that it became more about the killer than Mr Mahmood, whose life was ended without warning.After the verdict, A.K.M Shafiuddin said: "Everybody loved him."We won't get our brother back but at least we have a feeling that justice has been done." The Orkney Assassin: Murder in the Isles will be available on Prime Video in the UK & Ireland on 8 June.