The Glasgow murder of George Walker who starred with Martin Compston

As a teenager George Walker – nicknamed Junior – had shown an aptitude for acting and also playing football.

He was working as a window fitter and helped bring up his two-year-old son.

However, his short life all came to a tragic end one evening at his home in Birgidale Terrace in Castlemilk in August 2006.

George was sitting with his family, including dad George Walker Snr, and pregnant sister Nicola, watching television when several shots rang out – smashing the glass of the front room window.

Both father and son were injured, but George Jnr had been shot in the head and died a short time later.

In the days after his murder, it emerged he had been a promising youth player with Rangers.

He had also appeared in the 2002 Bafta award winning Ken Loach movie Sweet Sixteen as a heroin courier alongside the yet as unknown actor Martin Compston.

At the time Loach and Compston, who was now starring in the BBC series Monarch of the Glen, paid tribute to George.

Compston said: “Junior was a great big guy, a smashing guy. We met before the film for rehearsals and had such a laugh during filming.

“I was supposed to be the leader of the gang in the movie, but Junior was the main man off-screen. He was the comedian of the pack.”

While Loach added: “I remember him as a very nice lad. He was always good fun and always turned up on time. He was a joy to work with. We gave him rather more to do in the film because he was such a nice lad. I would like to send my sympathies to his family.

“We looked at quite a few lads and cast the ones with a bit of a spark. Junior had that and much more.”

The target of the attack was George Snr who ran a security firm protecting building sites in the city.

Detectives believed that whoever carried out the murder were contract killers hired by underworld figures trying to muscle in on George’s lucrative operation.

A burned-out Ford Mondeo used by the killer or killers was recovered near Birgidale Terrace soon after the shooting, though it yielded little or no significant evidence.

It also emerged that police had previously warned George Snr eight times that security firm rivals were out to kill him.

The latest warning had come two weeks before the murder.

A year earlier in August 2005 he had been shot in the street near his home with a sawn off shotgun.

However, the man charged with the attempted murder would later walk free at the High Court in Glasgow after witnesses were unable to identify him.

After a lengthy police investigation four men, Alan Burns, 41, Thomas Campling, 36, John Smith, 23, and Marcello Pacitti, 26, above were charged with murdering Junior and trying to kill his father.

They all stood trial at the High Court in Glasgow in June the following year.

Pacitti would sit separately in the dock from the other three with the reason soon to be revealed.

One of the first people in the witness box was George Snr, then 44, who described how his son was shot dead as they watched a movie on TV in their front room around 10pm on August 16.

He told the High Court in Glasgow that seconds before bullets smashed through the window he heard someone outside say: “I’ve got you now, you b*****d.”

George Snr said he had bent down to pick up an ashtray from the floor when the windows crashed in.

At first, he thought someone had thrown a brick, but he then realised it was two or three gunshots. George Snr went on: “As he (George Jnr) stood up I heard a burst of another two shots. He fell into my arms shouting he loved his kid, he loved me and his mum, and that he was going to die. My son was dead on the floor when the ambulance arrived.”

The dad said it was sometime later he realised he had also been injured in the shoulder and foot.

Following the father’s evidence, defence QC the late Derek Ogg, representing Pacitti, said his client was admitting a charge of conspiring to murder George Snr, and murdering his son.

The jury was then told he would become a prosecution witness and give evidence against his three co-accused.

Pacitti, from Sandyhills, named Smith as the man who organised the contract and paid the wages.

He then admitted he and Campling were the two gunmen and identified Burns as the getaway driver.

Neither the man they were working for nor the exact motive behind the contract killing was ever revealed in court.

Pacitti claimed he thought he was going to Castlemilk just to put the frighteners on George Snr.

Campling ordered him to go to the front door but he heard four shots crashing through the front window.

Pacitti went to the front and fired two shots at George Jnr, who already was on his hands and knees.

The gang torched the Ford then went to Campling’s home in Baillieston Road in the East End of the city.

Smith gave at least £10,000 to Campling in cash, Pacitti got £8000.

At the end of the trial in July 2007, Smith of Irvine, Ayrshire, and Campling, of Knightswood, were convicted of conspiracy to murder, murder and attempted murder.

Pacitti admitted shooting George Snr and murdering George Jnr.

Burns, who drove the group to the Walker home, was convicted of the lesser charge of culpable homicide.

Smith and Campling were told they must serve at least 25 years each before being eligible for parole.

Burns was jailed for 10 years.

Sentencing the three, trial judge Lord Matthews said: “The jury decided that George Walker Jnr was murdered in cold blood as the result of a conspiracy to carry out an execution or better a contract killing.

“This court will not allow people to treat this town or any other as old Chicago and indulge in gangsterism.

“You Burns were the driver, you Campling actually fired shots through the window and you Smith set the whole affair up, albeit you did so on behalf of others.

“I can only show you the same leniency you showed the Walker family.”

Members of George Junior’s family clapped as the sentences were handed out and his mother shouted at the trio as they were led from the dock: “I hope my son haunts you.”

Outside the High Court in Glasgow, George Snr admitted wearing a bullet proof best for the sentencing.

He explained: “I’m not living in fear.

“But my wife and daughter Nicola are scared that something else might happen to me and persuaded me to get a bulletproof vest.”

Asked why he was the target of gangland gunmen, George Snr said: “All I can say is that it was in connection with a long-standing feud of a personal family nature.

“But the dogs have been barking on the street that someone wanted me out of the way so they could take over my business.

“George Jnr had nothing to do with my business.

“He was my flesh and blood, my only son, and I am devastated.

“[My grandson] could have been shot, too, if he hadn’t been taken out of the room just 15 minutes before.

“The same goes for my daughter, Nicola.”

Pacitti was sentenced separately a few days later for the murder, for security reasons, and also given a life sentence.

However, the time he must serve behind bars before he can apply for parole was reduced from 22 years to 15 years because of his guilty plea and his prosecution evidence.

It then emerged that Pacitti had faced death threats for informing on his fellow killers.

Defence counsel the late Paul McBride QC told the High Court in Glasgow that his client had broken the gangland code of omerta or silence.

He added: “He has put his life and those of his family at risk.

“The evidence he gave helped to convict others and he has shown genuine remorse for the death of Mr Walker. He became involved with thoroughly evil individuals and will pay a very significant price.”

Lord Matthews then told Pacitti: “You will not see your family for a long time but the Walker family will never see George Jnr again, at least not in this life.”