SCORES of people called the police in the wake of Kriss Donald's murder and all pointed to the same suspect - Baldy, the street name of Imran Shahid.

Shahid was already well-known to the police in 2004 and a feared figure in Pollokshields, a community which he and his gang, the Shielders, terrorised with extreme violence for more than a decade.

It was Shahid's wounded pride on being attacked outside a nightclub, and his lust for revenge on a white boy, any white boy, that led to Kriss's horrific death.

Although four people are now imprisoned for his abduction and murder, Imran Shahid must bear the greatest responsibility. For there is no doubt that the chain of events that led to Kriss's death was started by Imran Shahid. The six-foot bodybuilder has a fierce temper - made worse by his abuse of steroids. He has been in and out of prison since he was a teenager and faced two attempted murder charges. He deludedly views himself as a mafia-style godfather.

However, Shahid is not some kind of fearless gang boss. He is a coward who preys on the weak, and the vulnerable, and women - those he is sure will not hit back.

When he cruised Pollokshields in a stolen Mercedes with his younger brother Zeeshan behind the wheel and Faisal Mushtaq, Daanish Zahid and Zahid Mohammed, he was not looking for any white boy. He was looking for a white boy smaller than himself, one unable to fight back.

On spotting Kriss, a slightly-built schoolboy, and Jamie Wallace, an emotionally unstable 19-year-old, Shahid said: "They'll do."

They were selected not only for their skin colour, but also for their vulnerability and defencelessness.

Shahid has always picked on those smaller and weaker than himself and used weapons against unarmed victims. He is a deeply disturbed man, who has used violence to assert his personality. The first time he faced a serious charge in the High Court was, along with an accomplice, for using a baseball bat to attack an unarmed man. Paschael Farren, now 36, was attacked by Shahid and a 15-yearold on Albert Drive, the main road through Pollokshields. Had a passerby not intervened, Mr Farren would now be dead. He was left permanently brain damaged.

Just as he did after murdering Kriss, Shahid fled to Pakistan, but was arrested when he returned a few months later.

He was charged with attempted murder, but this was eventually reduced to serious assault and he was jailed for four and a half years.

Shahid emerged from prison and embarked on a series of violent attacks designed to re-establish himself on the streets. He understood the power of reputation, and calculatedly carried out attacks to foster his notoriety.

Zulfqar Hussein had been dating Shahid's sister. When he failed to heed his order to end the relationship Shahid made an example of him. He had his finger hacked off.

When, during the same year, his younger brother Zeeshan, known as Crazy, was beaten up by members of a rival gang from Paisley Road West, Glasgow, Shahid was enraged. As retaliation he and others left a homemade bomb in the gang's territory. The device did not detonate properly, but a firefighter called to the scene was injured.

In 2002 Ibrahim Sharif, another of his former gang members, was lured to Hogganfield Loch in the north of Glasgow and stabbed and battered with a baseball bat. Sharif needed 130 stitches, but no charges were brought against Shahid, who has intimidated countless witnesses over the years.

Later that year in September he was again charged with attempted murder after a road rage incident. Again his victim was someone weaker than himself, a 41-year-old woman. As he drove to the gym his car was involved in a minor collision with a car belonging to Margaret McGregor in the east end of Glasgow. As the pair argued Shahid's temper flared and he punched the social worker in the face, knocking her unconscious, then climbed into his car, performed a U-turn, and drove towards her body. Had his passenger not grabbed control of the steering wheel, Miss McGregorwould in all likelihood have been killed.

The prosecution, conducted by Norman Ritchie, who defended Zeeshan Shahid during Kriss's murder trial, accepted a reduced plea and Shahid was jailed in March 2003 for two and a half years, but was released before Christmas.

The Shahid brothers and Mushtaq come from the same extended family which arrived in Scotland from the Pakistani Punjab in the 1960s. Their parents and grand-parents were hard working. But members of the later generation turned their backs on the ethic of hard work.

Imran and Zeeshan Shahid's mother, Qudsia Batool Arshad, initially lived with her extended family in Leven Street in Pollokshields. When she married Shahid Ishaq, the boys' father, they took a flat in Gourock Street in the St Andrews Cross area, a tough part of the city.

But as he worked harder, the family grewwealthier, and Mr Ishaq went on to own his own business. The family now lives in a GBP250,000 house in the village of Law, South Lanarkshire.

But Imran and Zeeshan did not work for their money. They stole cars, broke into houses, fraudulently claimed benefits and sold drugs.

Yet even now their family find it difficult to accept their guilt.

When Shahid was named as the prime suspect in Kriss's murder two years ago, his father said: "If witnesses say they saw him, I don't believe it."