The Glasgow crime story of Cranhill man John McGeechan who killed twice

In his case, two innocent unsuspecting law-abiding victims lost their lives after he stabbed them to death in separate incidents 10 years apart.

To add insult to injury the second murder was committed a short time after McGeechan had been freed from prison for the first killing.

He first struck one winter morning in February 1996, in Skerryvore Road, Cranhill, Glasgow.

The snow lay thick and children were out playing.

Martin Siegerson, 24, had decided to go to his mother’s house for breakfast.

On the way, he came across some of his pals and their kids throwing snowballs in the street.

Local man McGeechan had two dogs and they were barking on his veranda, so Martin, more in jest than anything, playfully lobbed a couple of snowballs to hopefully keep them quiet.

It was just a bit of fun, or so he thought.

However, McGeechan, who was known in Cranhill as a man to avoid, didn’t see it that way.

Though the dogs weren’t hit, McGeechan ran from his first floor flat and plunged a 12-inch carving knife into Martin’s heart.

As he lay dying in the snow, he ran off back into the flat leaving his victim fighting for life in the snow.

A local woman comforted Martin until the ambulance arrived.

The fact that the siren on the emergency vehicle was silent when it headed for the hospital told its own sad story. Martin was dead.

Police, called to the scene, arrested McGeechan in his flat a short time later and even caught him washing the murder weapon.

McGeechan, then 36, was charged with murder, but when he appeared at the High Court in Glasgow later that year, he admitted the reduced charge of culpable homicide and was sentenced to 10 years.

In his memoir Crimestopper, retired Detective Inspector Bryan McLaughlin, who arrested McGeechan shortly after the murder, said that it was the most senseless killing he had ever investigated.

At the time, McGeechan was dubbed in the media as the Snowball Killer.

It wouldn’t be long before he was back in the news.

The knifeman was paroled after six years but recalled to prison several times because of offences committed while on the outside.

By the time of his eventual release in 2006, he had served nine years and one month of his 10-year stretch.

It wasn’t safe for him to move back to Cranhill where his first victim Martin had been popular and well-loved.

More than 300 people attended his funeral.

McGeechan by comparison was considered a recluse who lived with his mother and was rarely seen outside his council flat except when walking his dogs.

Ironically, both men had known each other and played football together but McGeechan had shown him no mercy.

After his release from prison, McGeechan then moved to Maybole, in Ayrshire, in 2006 where Ahmjid Ismail, 34, and his family ran a grocer’s shop, known locally as Johnny’s.

The respected family had been in the village for 20 years and were pillars of the local community, ­unlike McGeechan.

By that time he was a heroin ­addict, having been introduced to the drug in prison.

That meant he also needed ­money to feed what was becoming an expensive habit.

McGeechan decided that the ­local shop in Kirkland Street where he lived would be an ideal place to rob for some quick money.

Ironically, his victim had been helping out in the shop while his family attended the passing-out parade in East Kilbride of one of his brothers, a trainee officer with Strathclyde Police.

That meant that Ahmjid was on his own.

During the botched robbery on November 8, 2006, McGeechan stabbed Ahmjid eight times.

He then fled the shop shortly before 6pm empty-handed except for his victim’s mobile phone.

McGeechan had grabbed it when Ahmjid tried to call the police for help.

However, Amhjid had dialled the wrong number.

Instead, he phoned a local resident and their answering machine recorded his terrified cries for help, which were later played to a horrified jury.

During the robbery, McGeechan had stabbed Ahmjid in the face, neck and body, severing the jugular vein.

After fleeing from the shop, he dumped his bloodstained jacket and the knife in bushes in Maybole.

His victim was found by a customer bleeding to death and doctors at Ayr Hospital were unable to save him.

However, the shop’s CCTV camera had filmed the murderous attack and clearly showed McGeechan’s distinctive designer jacket.

At the High Court in Edinburgh in May 2008, judge Lady Clark jailed 47-year-old McGeechan for life and imposed a minimum 20-year sentence before he could be considered for parole. The drug ­addict claimed he had an alibi, but a jury had found him unanimously guilty.

Defence advocate Barry Smith said McGeechan had never touched hard drugs before he was sent to prison but then became addicted to heroin.

At the time of the murder, he was using four £10 bags of heroin a day and was desperate for cash.

Before sentencing trial judge Lady Clark branded McGeechan “wicked” and said he posed a high risk of danger to the public.

She added: “You showed no mercy and used a knife repeatedly against a defenceless victim at his work.

“Despite his terrible injuries, he tried to summon help but you stole the phone, taking away his only means of getting assistance.”

Speaking after the guilty verdict, local prosecutor James Kelman said: “This was an unprovoked, vicious attack where the accused took the life of an innocent young man.

“The investigation was a complex one but, as with all cases of this nature, we as prosecutors were absolutely committed to gathering all available evidence in order to bring this case to a jury.”

Following McGeechan’s second conviction, questions were asked as to why the first murder charge was dropped.

The public wondered why he had been released so soon and why he hadn’t been better supervised when he was freed.

Another brother, Amir, was at the High Court in Edinburgh to see McGeechan sentenced.

Afterwards, he said: “Nobody can understand just how heartbreaking and soul-destroying it is to come home and find your parents in tears, night after night, week after month, in the knowledge that there is nothing you can do to assist.

“There is no doubt in my mind that the individual responsible for this crime is an evil, cold and ­pathetic coward.

“There are no circumstances whatsoever in my mind that may justify an individual convicted of taking the life of another person even being considered for early release or placement within an open prison.

“The time has surely now come for our members of Parliament to be accountable to the public and launch an urgent and immediate review of the various elements of our justice system, with swift legislation to address the changes sought.”

Another critic of the justice ­system was Martin’s grieving mother Patricia.

In an interview after his second conviction, she branded Scottish justice a shambles.

Patricia said evil McGeechan should have been caged for life in 1996.

She added: “I hope that monster rots in hell.

“He has killed two young men and destroyed their families’ lives. He should never be allowed out of jail.

“The justice system is a shambles when people like him are allowed to walk out of prison.

“Everyone was terrified of him. He was involved in drugs and always carried knives.

“He had chased people with knives and a hatchet but the cases never got right through court because folk were too scared to testify against him. He is an animal.”

She recalled her own fury at the High Court in Glasgow when McGeechan was jailed for just 10 years for killing her son Martin.

Pat recalled: “I was hysterical in court. I threw my rosary beads at him and they hit him.

“He did a deal and got 10 years but he should have served life. He never once said he was sorry and now he has done the same thing again.”

Pat believes police should have been watching McGeechan at the time he murdered Ahmjid.

She sent a sympathy card to the dead man’s family with the message: “You will always be in my prayers.”

Pat, 68, added: “My heart breaks for his mother.

“I wish I could tell her the pain will go away but it won’t. If ­anything, the feeling of loss gets worse.”