Glasgow Crime Stories: 'Christopher Hutcheson wanted to be Gangster No. 1'

Not even his own cousin.

Many people enjoy watching gangster movies as harmless entertainment.

But to 23-year-old Hutcheson they were his inspiration.

Hutcheson was addicted to Mafia films such as Goodfellas and the Godfather series, and watched them for hours on end at his flat in Ibrox, Glasgow. 

He even practised copying the chilling stare of actor Paul Bettany, the star of Gangster No. 1 and one of his favourite movies.

Christopher Hutcheson

Hutcheson wanted to dress and live like the men he idolised in the movies. 

His flat was decorated with the latest in Italian furniture and fittings. 

He had his own personal multi-gym and worked out every day to develop his massive physique and wore £1500 Versace suits bought from the company's store in Glasgow city centre. 

Hutcheson enjoyed his violent lifestyle and had two tattoos which said Thug for Life and Touch of Magic - which also had Satanic undertones. 

And he loved the company of attractive women, taking many on expensive trips to the Canary Islands and Spain. 

One holiday snapshot from the time shows him hugging a former partner on a cruise ship in Gran Canaria in July 2001 - only months before he murdered his two victims. 

The woman reportedly split with him shortly after returning from the trip because of his violence. 

Hutcheson was also a regular visitor to Blackpool where he got his tattoos. 

One former associate said: "Hutch liked to surround himself with good-looking young women, preferably blonde, and he could turn on the charm when he wanted to. 

"He lived his life the way he thought a gangster should and that meant the glamorous blondes, holidays and cars."

Two men owed him money for drugs, in one case £350.

Like his heroes in the movies, he wanted to show that he was not a man to be crossed - even if those who owned money was his own cousin Daniel Hutcheson.

His first victim, John Mitchell, a homeless man forced to beg in the streets, died after being stabbed in the leg then tortured at Hutcheson's flat for almost 12 hours in September 2001, because of the £350 debt.

The terrified 34-year-old had his hands pulverised with a metal dumbbell bar and a kettle of boiling water poured over them.  

He was then bundled into a car and taken to a remote bridge at Strathaven, South Lanarkshire, where Hutcheson pushed him off the edge. 

Afterwards, Hutcheson bemoaned the fact that Mitchell "hadn't even shouted `aaaarrgh'" as he fell.

Daniel Hutcheson

A few weeks later in November 2001, cousin Daniel, then 23, a former soldier, was lured to the same flat over an unpaid debt.

Hutcheson strangled him with a piece of rope, as Andrew Ferguson looked on, after forcing him into a bath of water.

Daniel's head was then cut off and the two are said to have played football with it.

Hutcheson later sat beside a burning oil drum for several days in a tenement back garden, drinking beer and burning Daniel's various body parts which had been dismembered, occasionally stoking the fire.

Daniel's head had also been placed into the oil drum used for the fire, wrapped in a bin bag.

It was later said that Hutcheson had kept the head on the mantlepiece of his flat for two days.

It has never been found.  

Daniel's body parts were then dumped at four separate locations, including under the Erskine Bridge on the River Clyde, in an attempt to conceal the crime. 

The pair had carried out the dismemberment after spending the previous night clubbing in the centre of Glasgow in a bid to give themselves an alibi for the crime.

Five months later in 2002, two men found the headless and limbless torso of Daniel beneath the Erskine Bridge.

Daniel had already been reported missing and now a murder investigation was launched.

Andrew Ferguson

Hutcheson and Ferguson stood trial at the High Court in Glasgow in March 2003 after conscience-stricken Ferguson went to the police and told all.  

By this time, Hutcheson was already serving a four-year prison term for drugs offences.

Ferguson also gave evidence against Hutcheson during the trial despite being sat in the dock beside him.

Hutcheson was found guilty by the jury and sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment for the double murder, with a minimum term of 25 years before parole could be considered.

Ferguson, then 19, was found guilty of the murder and dismemberment of Daniel.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment at a young offenders' institution and told he must serve at least 17 years.

Hutcheson was also found guilty of attempted murder and a number of serious assaults.

After the verdicts were announced, shouting rang out at the High Court in Glasgow and proceedings had to be adjourned.

Daniel's mother, Lorraine O'Connor, rushed forward as Hutcheson was led down to the cells and had to be restrained by police officers as she hurled abuse at him.

Speaking outside court, she said: "Apart from bringing back the death penalty, justice has been done. He should burn in hell."

Ferguson's family, meanwhile, protested his innocence and a number of his supporters had to be escorted out of the courtroom.

Before sentencing, trial judge Lord Bracadale said both men had taken part in "barbarous acts".

He added: "If people failed to pay or otherwise offended you, they were severely punished.

"In the case of John Mitchell, having on an earlier occasion stabbed him and three days earlier having spent a day torturing him, you took him to a remote area and without the slightest hesitation threw him off a high bridge and left him to die.

"Three months later you, Andrew Ferguson, and you, Christopher Hutcheson, murdered Daniel Hutcheson. You put his body in a bath of water and thereafter both of you behaved grotesquely.

"After a night at the dancing you went to B&Q where you bought a saw, bin bags, rubber gloves and cable ties and you dismembered the body in the back garden.

"Everyone who heard the evidence in this case was deeply disturbed by it and people everywhere will be horrified to hear of such barbarous acts being committed in their midst."

In an interview a few days later, a young woman who knew both men revealed how Hutcheson was obsessed with Gangster No. 1. 

She said: "He loved gangster films. He used to say `I will make the front page. I will do something that will go down in history'. 

"If anyone like Andrew crossed him he would say things like `I'll hang you like a rabbit or bite your face off'.

“He even attacked Andrew twice in the dock after the jury left the court. 

"His favourite phrase was `I am gonna murder you'.

“The only difference between him and other thugs was he meant it." 

Like the thug played by Bettany in the 2000 movie, Hutcheson had a gang of associates, like Ferguson, to do his bidding. 

And, again like the Bettany character, Hutcheson often carried a small machete to threaten his network of terrified dealers. 

In an interview, following conviction and sentencing, Dr Richard Haynes, of Stirling University, claimed vicious people like Hutcheson get excited by violence - whether in real life or in films. 

But he added the capability for brutality would already have been ingrained in Hutcheson's personality. 

Dr Haynes added: "I do not think this man became violent by watching these films. 

"He is already aggressive but will use these films to stimulate his interest in violence. 

"The capacity for acts of sadistic brutality is already there. What violent movies do, however, is continually feed that appetite for violence."

"This man had a capability for violence long before he started watching gangster movies - but those films helped feed that." 

While in prison Hutcheson is said to have written to notorious killer William Beggs to boast that his murders were better.

Beggs had lured supermarket worker Barry Wallace back to his flat in Kilmarnock in 1999 where he subjected him to a terrifying sexual assault before dismembering his body and dumping his limbs in Loch Lomond.  

He, like Hutcheson, was serving a life sentence.

Little is known about Ferguson now but he would have been eligible for parole several years ago.

Hutcheson is due for parole in around five years’ time having served two decades behind bars.

Whether he should or will be released any time soon remains to be seen.