The Man In The Mask: An Orkney Murder (BBC2)
Please spare a thought for the people who write detective dramas. They can try as hard as they like, but they’ll never produce anything as dramatic and mysterious as real life. In evidence, I refer you to
The Man In The Mask: An Orkney Murder. One evening in June 1994, a waiter called Shamsuddin Mahmood was working at a restaurant in Kirkwall, the largest town in Orkney.
The restaurant was fairly busy, and at about 7.15pm he was taking an order at a table when a man in a balaclava calmly walked in and shot Shamsuddin in the head at point-blank range.
‘It was like a scene out of an American gangster movie,’ said one witness.
Police struggled from the start. There was no obvious motive. The victim, who was 26, had arrived in the UK from Bangladesh in 1991. He was friendly, popular, and had no enemies.
But then, the investigation took an astonishing turn that divides opinion in Orkney to this very day.
Suspicion fell on a 15-year-old schoolboy called Michael Ross, who’d been spotted in woods a fortnight before the attack, dressed in a balaclava that he later destroyed.
To add another twist, his father was a police constable in Kirkwall and was involved in the inquiry (he was later jailed for withholding evidence).
Shamsuddin Mahmood in waistcoast inthe restaurant he worked in
Eddy and Moira Ross, holding a photograph of their son, Michael
Yet forensic officers found no evidence linking Ross to the murder. The weapon was never found, and he had no obvious connection to the victim.
Then, more than a decade after the crime, a witness reported having seen him in nearby public toilets with a gun and a balaclava.
‘It’s a story full of twists and turns,’ said journalist Hazel
Martin, presenting this very thorough three-part investigation. ‘Newsroom colleagues would talk about it as one of the strangest cases they’d ever reported on.’
She has been given access to witness statements and interviews with Ross. She has spoken with his parents, and some of the officers involved. And the truth is, the case is still as baffling as ever.
Ross, who went on to serve in the Army in Iraq and rose to the rank of sergeant, was convicted of murder in 2008 and jailed for 25 years. He still maintains his innocence.
As one supporter told Martin: ‘How could this have been a 15-year-old boy? It’s not the kind of crime that is committed by a 15-year-old boy in Orkney.’
To emphasise his age, we were told that police had to take him out of a PE lesson before they could question him.
On the other hand, young Ross was very keen on guns. In his room, police found a deactivated sub-machine gun — a present from his dad.
The walls were covered with pictures of guns and tanks. In the house, officers also found five pistols, two revolvers, three rifles and a shotgun.
Whatever your view on the verdict, he certainly wasn’t your average teenager.
CHRISTOPHER STEVENS is away
