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BBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nFour men have been jailed for murdering a man who had dropped his girlfriend off outside her house in East Renfrewshire.<\/p>\n Tony Ferns, 33, suffered a stab wound to the heart while sitting in his car in Thornliebank in April 2019.<\/p>\n He managed to drive a short distance to the house he shared with his mother after the attack, but later died as a result of his injuries.<\/p>\n Craig Colquhoun, 39, Raymond Platt, 56, Joseph McCulloch, 50, and Robert Park, 69, were found unanimously guilty of his murder following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n All four had denied being involved in the murder.<\/p>\n Mr Ferns blamed Robert Park, 69, who planned the murder, for injuring his disabled brother in a road accident.<\/p>\n Park was jailed for 20 years, while Platt, who stabbed Mr Ferns, was jailed for 23 years. <\/p>\n Getaway driver Colquhoun was jailed for 20 years and McCulloch received an 18-year sentence.<\/p>\n The four were sentenced less than an hour after being found guilty of the murder.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The trial heard Park, a window cleaner, plotted with convicted killer Platt, to murder Mr Ferns, who worked as a tiler.<\/p>\n Colquhoun acted as the getaway driver in a Motability car, which belonged to the mother of his then-partner.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, McCulloch was said to have been helping track Mr Ferns’ movements before the killing.<\/p>\n Mr Ferns’ partner, Angela McCann, told the trial how she could “see the life draining” from him after the attack.<\/p>\n He had just dropped Ms McCann outside her home following her shift at a convenience store when a man approached his vehicle.<\/p>\n Ms McCann had gone back inside to get her sister, who was babysitting her children, with Mr Ferns due to drive her home.<\/p>\n She said she spotted a man at her partner’s window but told the court she was not concerned as “Tony knew everybody” and believed it was likely a friend.<\/p>\n She heard the car suddenly screech and the vehicle head towards the nearby home Mr Ferns shared with his mother Phyliss, where it stopped.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ms McCann said she could not “comprehend” what had happened, and remembered shouting to Mr Ferns, who replied: “Angie, I have been stabbed.”<\/p>\n She said she called 999 and held a towel to the wound to stem the bleeding.<\/p>\n A pathologist told the court he had died from a “stab wound of the heart”.<\/p>\n Dr Gemma Kemp, who carried out the post-mortem examination on the body, told the trial a “severe” level of force would have been required to inflict the fatal blow.<\/p>\n In her victim impact statement, Phyllis Ferns, spoke of her “loss and the enduring effect of the death of her son”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The court heard how Mr Ferns blamed Park, known as Rab, for his disabled brother Mark being injured in a road accident.<\/p>\n Mr Ferns thought Park had “made the phone call” that brought the car into the street and knocked down his brother.<\/p>\n Mark, who was registered blind, died in 2017.<\/p>\n The trial was told there were a number of clashes between the two men, including one instance in which Mr Ferns punched Park.<\/p>\n On another occasion, Mr Ferns and a friend were attacked by two men wielding swords and bats while they sat in a van.<\/p>\n Mr Ferns was said to believe one of the men involved was Park, while the other was McCulloch, however this was not confirmed.<\/p>\n A “truce” was later called between the men following a meeting at a bookmaker’s in 2017.<\/p>\n Mr Ferns’ mother told the trial Park had told her son: “You were getting murdered. I’ll make the phone call and call them off.”<\/p>\n Lawyers for Park had claimed Mr Ferns was “fixated” with him and said that Park had been forced to move house as a result, however that was also not confirmed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Sentencing, Lord Fairley described the killing as a “targeted and pre-planned assassination”.<\/p>\n Platt had previously faced two other trials for knife-related crimes.<\/p>\n In 1995, he was cleared of stabbing Daniel Harley to death in a taxi office in Glasgow’s Govan.<\/p>\n He was found guilty of the “body in the carpet” murder of 20-year-old Marc Hayes in the same area of the city in 2000, but appeal judges later quashed that conviction.<\/p>\n Platt instead pled guilty to the lesser charge of culpable homicide on the eve of a retrial and was sentenced to 14 years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He was also jailed for nine years in 2013 for the attempted murder of Edward Bennett, also in Govan, but was released four years early in August 2018.<\/p>\n Det Ch Insp Ally Semple said: “Tony had just dropped his girlfriend off at her flat when he was attacked.<\/p>\n “This was witnessed by his mother and his girlfriend who were both left devastated by what they saw that day. <\/p>\n “Our thoughts are with them, other family members and friends of Tony. I hope they now feel some kind of closure that justice has been done.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/static.files.bbci.co.uk\/bbcdotcom\/web\/20250905-110137-f27f908f49-web-2.29.1-3\/grey-placeholder.png\")
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Police Scotland<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nLong-running feud<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
‘Pre-planned assassination’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Police Scotland<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n