TWO Edinburgh prisoners who held an inmate hostage and demanded a bus to Barlinnie and a Kentucky Fried Chicken meal have won appeals against life sentences imposed on them.
Andrew Kinloch and James Quinn were armed with home-made weapons when they took Jason McLaren captive at Edinburgh’s Saughton prison and listed their demands, including a Chinese takeaway and a transfer to jail in the West of Scotland.
A judge imposed Orders for Lifelong Restriction (OLR) on the pair earlier this year after concluding they had been correctly assessed as being a high risk to the safety of the public if at liberty following full risk assessments.
Lord Uist told Kinloch, 27, and Quinn, 29, at the High Court in Edinburgh in May: “You will be released only when it is considered to be no longer necessary for the protection of the public that you continue to be confined in prison.”
But lawyers acting for the pair challenged the decision to impose OLRs on them and judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh ruled in their favour.
The Lord Justice Clerk, Lord Carloway, sitting with Lord Eassie and Lord Drummond Young, said: “The court is inclined to quash the Orders for Lifelong Restriction in both cases.”
Kinloch and Quinn earlier admitted assaulting and abducting the fellow inmate and repeatedly refusing to release him unless their demands were met during the incident in June 2013.
They were armed with “double whammys” made with razor blades melted into plastic which were put to his throat.
He was held in a cell for about five hours.
After negotiations they agreed to hand over one of their weapons for a quarter ounce of tobacco.
The stand-off ended when they realised there was nothing more to be gained.
The senior judge said they would have to consider an alternative of an extended sentence _ a fixed prison sentence followed by supervision and continued the case for four weeks for reports to be prepared.
Gordon Jackson QC, for Kinloch, argued that the imposition of an OLR in the case was wrong. He said: “It is excessive for this offence and this pattern of behaviour. Full stop.”
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