A VERDICT of not proven was returned at the High Court in Paisley
yesterday on a charge of murdering 21-year-old security guard Derek Ure.
Second-hand car dealer Mark Vass, 29, ran smiling from the court and
said: ''I am glad to be free.''
He was driven away by friends to be reunited with his girlfriend
Rachel Mackie, a 26-year-old nurse. Miss Mackie, of Lenzie, claimed in
evidence that Mr Vass, of Vaila Place, Cadder, Glasgow, was with her in
Guildford, Surrey, the day Mr Ure was killed.
The jury took more than two hours to reach its verdict by a majority.
Mr Vass denied murdering Mr Ure by shooting him in Greenock in March.
Mr Jack Gillies, the other guard, was found handcuffed as the raiders
escaped in stolen cars.
Three men, two of them masked and armed, and a getaway driver, were
believed to have carried out the murder during an attempted robbery of a
security van in a service lane at the rear of Boots in Hamilton Way,
Greenock.
Mr Vass's fingerprint was found on the registration plate of one of
the cars but he claimed he could have put it there by accident earlier.
Security Express, who employed Mr Ure, put up a #50,000 reward after
the murder.
Mr Ure's parents Ona and Gordon Ure, of Elmore Avenue, Simshill,
Glasgow, were helped by friends from the court after the jury's verdict.
A family friend said: ''We would like to thank the police for all
their efforts.''
Proceedings against Peter Hetherington, 31, of Mingulay Street,
Milton, Glasgow, were dropped by the Crown half-way through the two-week
trial because of insufficient evidence.
The case was the second Greenock murder trial to end in a not proven
verdict.
In the first case, a man was cleared of murdering a Greenock taxi
driver by stabbing him to death in his car.
Mr David Anderson, the accused man, claimed the driver, a father of
three young children, jumped on to the knife. He claimed he pulled the
driver from the car and that someone must have come along later, stolen
the knife, thrown it in a river, and stolen the car.
The jury found the charge not proven and now the driver's widow is
suing Mr Anderson for #500,000 in the civil courts.
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