Listen to the Glasgow Crime Story of Safecracker Patrick "Paddy" Meehan

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Safecracker Patrick "Paddy" Meehan has a unique place in the history of crime in Glasgow.

A notorious miscarriage of justice saw him become the first and only Scot to get a Royal Pardon.

The drama began in July 1969 after a gang broke into the Ayr home of elderly bingo hall owner Abraham Ross, stealing jewellery, and violently assaulting both him and his 72-year-old wife Rachel.

The couple were left tied up for 30 hours and the ordeal proved too much for Rachel, who later died in hospital.

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However, Abraham Ross survived the attack, and he reported that the robbers had addressed each other as "Pat" and "Jim" and had Glasgow accents.

Police suspected two known criminals, Glaswegian Meehan and Englishman James Griffiths, who they heard had been in the area at the time.

Meehan, then 42, from Govanhill was a notorious safe blower and robber who had graduated from young offenders’ institutions to prison where he spent much of his adult life.

In 195,1 at the age of 24, he was charged with robbing the St. Rollox Branch of the Clydesdale and North of Scotland Bank in Springburn and made his first of many appearances at the High Court in Glasgow.

He was involved in the robbery of the British Linen Bank in Oban in Argyllshire in 1955 and was charged in Dublin with possessing money and other property from that robbery.

The same year he blew the safe in the Beauly branch of the Commercial Bank of Scotland in Inverness-shire, a crime which brought him a six-year prison sentence.

By the late 1960's he was well known to the police both north and south of the border, having also served a series of jail terms in England.

From the moment detectives arrested and charged him with Rachel Ross's murder, he protested his innocence. Meehan claimed he had been elsewhere that night, but the police refused to believe him.

But things were about to go from bad to worse for the career criminal.

The one man who would have confirmed Meehan's alibi was killed nine days later, shot by a police gunman.

Detectives had tried to speak to Griffiths, at his flat in Holyrood Crescent in Glasgow's west end about the death of Rachel Ross.

He knew that both he and Meehan were prime suspects for the murder and thought they were both being 'fitted up.'

With the prospect of a life-term sentence looming over him, Griffiths decided he wasn't going to be taken alive.

He began shooting at officers from the flat, hitting one in the back, before escaping through a back garden.

Griffiths hijacked a car and led police on a chase through the city lasting almost two hours.

In a mad two-hour rampage, he shot 13 people, one fatally.

Griffiths' spree, during which he took potshots from a rifle and a shotgun at terrified random victims including children, remains one of the bloodiest episodes in modern Scottish history.

The siege claimed the life of one man, William Hughes, who was shot in the Round Toll Bar in Possilpark.

Griffiths then hijacked a lorry, ending up in Kay Street, Springburn.

Cornered by police, he raced into a block of flats, breaking into a top-floor property from where he started shooting at people below - including children.

Detective Sergeant Ian Smith - a firearms specialist - was drafted in to apprehend Griffiths.

Armed with handguns, Smith and Chief Superintendent Malcolm Finlayson sneaked into the tenement close.

Griffiths, who was from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, ignored their pleas to surrender and fired at the officers.

Finlayson then hit him with a shot through the letter box before the pair stormed the property and dragged him out.

He died from his injuries, aged 34.

It gave Griffiths the ignominy of becoming the first man shot dead by police in this country.

He was later given a pauper's funeral in Linn Cemetery, Glasgow which none of his shamed family attended.

The Lord Advocate then ruled that there would be no public inquiry into his death, saying the officers had taken the necessary steps to protect the public. He also praised their bravery.

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Last year in an interview in the Glasgow Times Peter Traynor, now 59, remembered the terrifying experience as if it was yesterday.

He was playing in a swing park in Kay Street when Griffiths opened fire.

Peter, who was seven at the time, said: "I hate to say it but had Griffiths been a decent shot he would have killed about 20 people.

"He was firing the gun nonstop all the time and didn't care who he hit.

"People were running in all directions screaming and shouting and he was basically shooting at anybody who moved."

For their bravery Ian Smith was given the British Empire Medal (BEM) by the Queen at Buckingham Palace Finlayson was also given the BEM at the same ceremony and further honoured by the City of Glasgow Police.

Following Griffiths' death and Meehan’s arrest police said they were not looking for anyone else in connection with the Ross murder.

As far as detectives were concerned the actions of Griffiths - in trying to shoot his way out - were that of a guilty man. Meehan stood trial later that year at the High Court in Edinburgh in what would prove to be a media sensation.

The Crown claimed that tiny pieces of brown and white paper found in a coat worn by Griffiths matched paper from Mr Ross's safe.

But the robbery took place in mid-summer and Meehan insisted neither of them were wearing coats that evening.

He also claimed the paper had been planted in Griffiths' coat by police. His defence was that he and Griffiths had passed through Ayr on their way to case a place in Stranraer.

Meehan had convictions for bank robbery but had no convictions for violence although Griffiths had several.

However, Meehan's alibi and corroboration had died abruptly in a hail of bullets.

The prosecution claimed that Griffiths' gun battle with police was because he was guilty of the Rachel Ross murder.

But Meehan claimed Griffiths had always said he would shoot his way out, rather than face any more time in jail.

During the trial Meehan's legal team also lodged another special defence, alleging that two notorious Glasgow criminals, Ian Waddell and William "Tank" McGuiness, were responsible for Rachel Ross's death.

However, the jury did not believe Meehan and he was convicted of murder by a majority verdict of nine to six.

His solicitor was the late Joseph Beltrami, and his advocates were two of the finest legal brains of the time.

Nicholas Fairbairn, who went on to become a Tory MP and member of Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet in the 1980's and John Smith, who became leader of the Labour Party in 1992.

Beltrami specialised in criminal law and first came to public prominence when he successfully defended underworld figure Walter Scott Ellis, who was accused of murdering a taxi driver in 1961.

Thompson and Meehan had also been close associates over the years and knew each other well.

In his evidence, Waddell denied he had been in Ayr on the night of Rachel Ross's murder and also denied giving his lawyer a £200 retainer should police ever arrest him for the murder.

But his lawyer insisted that this had happened and, as a result, Waddell was jailed for three years for perjury.

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Following his conviction for murder Meehan was scented to life imprisonment by Lord Grant.

As he was taken away Meehan stood to attention in the dock and said: "I am innocent of this crime. You have made a terrible mistake."

Attempts to lodge an appeal by Meehan were thrown out by then Secretary of State for Scotland, Willie Ross.

Few believed in his innocence apart from his lawyer Joe Beltrami, who had good reason.

McGuinness, who was also a client, had told the lawyer in 1971 that he was in fact Rachel Ross's killer.

Bound by client confidentiality, Beltrami was forced to keep the secret.

The case took a further twist when in 1974. Waddell turned up at one Glasgow-based newspaper and confessed to the Ross murder, also giving information only the raiders could have known.

In his confession, Waddell accurately described the interior of Abraham Ross's home and spoke of a watch that had been taken from his wrist.

This information had never been made public and was information only the killers could have known.

It was what the police call specialist knowledge.

When Ross was later re-interviewed, he recalled the watch but said he had forgotten to tell the police about it.

He also admitted he may have been wrong about Meehan when he identified his voice at the ID parade.

However, the new evidence wasn't enough to get Meehan out of prison with few believing Waddell.

Meehan's campaign was given fresh impetus when it was taken up by the famous broadcaster of the time Ludovic Kennedy.

He named both McGuiness and Waddell as Rachel Ross' killers in a 1975 book, A Presumption of Innocence.

Then in a major development, McGuiness was murdered in a brawl in March 1976 in Janefield Street near Celtic Park.

The last person to be seen with McGuiness while alive, John Winning, was charged with his murder, but the case against him collapsed because of insufficient evidence. Winning was also later murdered.

McGuiness' death meant that Beltrami was no longer bound by client confidentiality and he could share his earlier confession with the authorities.

McGuiness’ family also told Beltrami he had admitted to them that he had committed the Ayr murder and they signed authorisations allowing him to use the information.

A formal appeal was lodged and within months Meehan was given a Royal Pardon after seven years in solitary confinement.

Later that year, Waddell was put on trial for the murder of Mrs Ross.

At his trial he submitted a defence of incrimination, claiming that the murder was committed by Meehan and he was acquitted.

In 1982 Waddell was murdered by an associate, Andrew Gentle, shortly after a robbery in which they killed a woman.

Gentle was convicted of both murders and later committed suicide in prison.

In 1989, Mr Beltrami published his own account of the case, 'A Deadly Innocence: The Meehan File' including the McGuiness confession.

McGuinness had described seeing a recent operation scar on Mrs Ross's chest and dumping rings stolen from the house down a drain in Ayr.

He even claimed he had been given a lift to Ayr bus station by two policemen in a police car.

Beltrami wrote: "He told me all this on more than one occasion - not because he wanted Meehan released, but because he wanted to expose the fact that the police had framed him - but it was all confidential.

"I cannot disclose what a client tells me.

"This was the most agonising part of the case because I had all this information and detail given to me by McGuinness, but I could do nothing about it. It was very frustrating."

Beltrami had not only helped free Meehan on appeal but he also won him £50,000 compensation (£175,000 now).

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However, the safecracker wasn't happy with the outcome or Beltrami and the case took yet another bizarre twist.

Meehan claimed he had been framed for the Ross murder by British intelligence over his alleged role in the escape of a notorious spy George Blake in 1966 from Wandsworth Prison.

In 1955, he had masterminded the escape of Terry "Scarface" Martin from Peterhead prison and did it himself in 1963 when serving an eight-year sentence in Nottingham Prison for attempted robbery.

At the time of Blake's escape, the world was in a grip of a cold war between the allies and the Soviet Union.

Meehan thought he could make a lot of money by going behind the Iron Curtain and advising the Stasi in East Germany and KGB in Russia on how they could spring comrades from British prisons.

Travelling on a false passport he made his way to East Germany where he was held for 14 months where, according to Meehan, he passed on information about how Blake could be broken out of prison.

Meehan claimed to have been in contact with Sean Bourke, an Irish-born prisoner in Wormwood Scrubs who organised Blake's escape and followed him to the Soviet Union.

Blake, the British double agent who was jailed in 1961 for 42 years for spying for the Soviet Union, then broke out of his cell in Wormwood Scrubs in October 1966 and made his way to Russia.

He had climbed out of a window when most of the prison was watching a film and scaled the outer wall using a ladder made of knitting needles.

When he returned to Britain Meehan claimed that he had warned secret service agents that an attempt to free Blake was imminent.

The warning was then passed to the Home Office. Yet no action appears to have been taken.

During his lifetime Meehan's claims about his role in the Blake escape were dismissed as the ramblings of an old crook.

Following his release from prison in 1976, an inquiry had been ordered by the Scottish Secretary Bruce Millan, to be carried out by Lord Hunter.

After five years, its report concluded that Mr Meehan had been present together with Griffiths and two other men the night Mrs Ross was attacked and that despite a pardon, Meehan's guilt was not disproved, Lord Hunter said there was no evidence of the police fabricating evidence or a police conspiracy as claimed. It was widely criticised as a whitewash.

He also described Meehan as a "glib and inventive liar, and sometimes a teller of fanciful stories"

Meehan died in 1994 in a hospital in Swansea from throat cancer after settling in nearby Port Talbot with family members.

Following his death, some elements of his life story were adapted and used by the author Denise Mina in her 2005 novel The Field of Blood, with the main character a female journalist bearing his name.

To this day mystery still surrounds the murder of Rachel Ross and the links to Meehan.

After his release from prison, the former safe-breaker had a brief career selling burglar alarms, and then double-glazing.

However, he continued to press through the courts for his case to be reopened.

He also brought out his own book, Framed by MI5, which he wrote after leaving Glasgow to move to Wales.

He repeated his claims that he had been the victim of an elaborate conspiracy, concocted by the security services, to keep him quiet over his role in the escape of George Blake.

In his later years, Meehan could often be found hawking the book round the streets of Glasgow and at the city's Central Station.

In his own memoirs, QC Nicholas Fairbairn wrote about the Meehan case: "The police made the classic mistake, a mistake always to be avoided.

"Having come to the evidence that Meehan and Griffiths could have been involved, they closed their mind to every other possibility."

Had capital punishment still been available in 1969 - it was only abolished four years earlier - Meehan would almost certainly have been hanged for the robbery and murder of Rachel Ross.

In an interview in 2002 Beltrami spoke about his later feud with the safecracker and why they had fallen out.

He said: "Meehan was angry because he felt I should have acted on the confession McGuinness made to me. But if I had gone to the police, they would simply have said I was making this up to help Meehan.

"If they had gone to McGuinness, he was hardly going to admit he had killed someone.

"Nothing would have happened and I would have been in danger because I had betrayed McGuinness, who was a psychopath.

"It was the most astonishing case I have ever had - and the most difficult.

"The Meehan case was like a giant jigsaw that took 15 years to complete. It was frustrating because I believed wholeheartedly he was innocent from the start.

"But getting justice and compensation for him took a very long time."