Deadly ‘supergang’ led by footballer-turned ASSASSIN who splurged cash earned by brutal murder on new Turkey teeth
A DEADLY “supergang” was led by a footballer-turned assassin who splurged the cash earned by a brutal murder on new Turkey teeth.
Prosecutors described former Partick Thistle youth player Barry Harvey, 35, as a “cold-blooded killer”.
The assassin’s 17-year gangland career began as a teen, when he was caged for a savage knife attack on Thomas McCairns.
He became the “enforcer” and “top dog” of a gang linked to the Gillespie brothers – whose crime network once spanned the world.
The hitman has now been jailed along with his “subservient” cronies Thomas Guthrie and Darren Owen following a 12-week trial.
Harvey was convicted of gunning down gym boss Gary More on the doorstep of his home in Airdrie, Lanarkshire.
More, 32, owed the gang a drug debt of £100,000 – with thug Neil Anderson visiting him several times before the murder.
Harvey blasted More nine times in the head and body after Anderson lured him out of the house.
Getaway driver Guthrie, 27, ferried Harvey away from More’s home in a Skoda.
The motor was found burnt out later that night on a farm in Baldernock, East Dunbartonshire.
Harvey splashed out his reward from the paid hit on a gleaming set of “Turkey teeth”.
Prosecutor Lorraine Glancy said: “Harvey was a cold blooded killer carrying out a job or hit.
“The payment which went to his house and a holiday to Krakow with his girlfriend.
“There was funding of Turkey teeth acquired by Harvey – additional expenditure from the payment for the murder of Mr More.”
Harvey, Guthrie and Owen later tried to kill drug dealer Scott Bennett, 43, outside a vets in nearby Rutherglen.
Assassin Harvey shot Bennett once as he sat in his van – with the bullet passing through his jaw and mouth and lodging in his neck.
Bennett fled the scene immediately after the “pre-planned attempt at an execution”.
He was jailed in 2022 after pleading guilty to being involved in serious organised crime and the supply of controlled drugs.
Harvey and his girlfriend Carla Montgomery took a £1,000 flight to Australia after the pavement shooting.
Guthrie also brutally slashed 68-year-old lawyer Joe Shields after lying in wait outside his office near Glasgow Sheriff Court.
Shields had defended a gang headed by David Sell – who was caged for 16 years for abducting and torturing drug dealer Robert Allan.
The “cowardly unprovoked assault” on Shields left him with horrific slash wounds to his ear, mouth, cheek, temple, hands and back.
Guthrie’s getaway car was found burnt out at the same car where he had torched the Skoda used in killing of Gary More.
REIGN OF TERROR
Owen, 23, also shot dead 36-year-old Rafal Lyko after picking him up in a Mercedes GLE which had been stolen in Edinburgh.
Polish national Lyko’s remains were found in the burnt-out shell of the Mercedes in Blantyre.
The gang is believed to have ordered Lyko’s killing over a “drugs debt”.
But their empire of fear unravelled when associate Scott Brown turned prosecution witness.
He told the gangsters’ trial that Guthrie told him to follow the getaway Skoda to the farm – watching it go up in flames.
Cops seized a phone Guthrie was using at the time – leading him to say “Everyone is f***ed – Barry, Barry’s bird”.
Harvey, Guthrie and Owen are on remand after sentencing was deferred until next month.
All three are expected to receive fixed life sentences for their reign of terror between 2018 and 2019.