Hit men Raymond Anderson senior and James McDonald were given record jail terms after they were found guilty of gunning down gangland rival

Hit men Raymond Anderson senior and James McDonald were given record jail terms after they were found guilty of gunning down gangland rival Michael Lyons, 21, in December 2006.They were brought to the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh on Friday for their legal teams to confirm that they were ready for a full hearing, expected to go ahead in May.On Wednesday, shoppers at an Asda superstore in Robroyston, Glasgow, dived for cover as masked gunmen pumped bullets into the head of Kevin ‘The Gerbil’ Carroll, sitting in his black Audi A3.Rumours have since circulated that Carroll, 29, had been executed for informing on Anderson and McDonald for the earlier murder.Anderson, 48, and McDonald, 36, have lodged appeals against their convictions for the Lyons murder at an MOT centre in Lambhill, Glasgow.
Two other men were left badly injured in the triple shooting. Anderson and McDonald were jailed for life. Judge Lord Hardie ordered that they should each serve at least 35 years before they could apply for parole - the longest minimum sentence ever handed down in Scotland. The two men are also challenging that minimum sentence.
A trial in April 2008 heard it was 2.30pm when Anderson and McDonald, wearing long coats and carrying handguns, walked into the Applerow Motors garage in Balmore Road - just a hundred yards from a local primary school. In the shooting which followed, Michael Lyons died. He was the nephew of so-called crime clan chief Eddie Lyons senior, whose brother owned the garage.Steven Lyons, 27, one of Eddie's sons, was hit in the leg as he tried to flee. Gangland enforcer Robert Pickett, 42, was hit three times - and was later jailed as he told the trial that the wrong men were in the dock.Lord Hardie, passing sentence, described the garage murder as "a cold-blooded, pre-meditated execution."