A GANGSTER accused of gunning down a man in a Drumchapel street has been acquitted of murder.

John Kennedy, 41, was alleged to have shot and killed Jamie Campbell in Essenside Avenue in March 2006.

But a jury delivered a not proven verdict at the High Court in Edinburgh.

However, Kennedy will serve at least 26 years behind bars after he was found guilty, along with three other men, of another murder - that of Kenny Reilly in Glasgow's Maryhill in 2018.

Kennedy and Morton Eadie, 56, his son Darren Eadie, 30, and Ross Fisher, also 30, were sentenced to minimum jail terms totalling 94 years for their roles in the assassination.

Darren Eadie must serve 24 years before being eligible for parole, while Fisher and Morton Eadie were each handed minimum terms of 22 years.

Kennedy had been further accused of murdering Jamie Campbell on March 4, 2006 by repeatedly discharging a gun at him and repeatedly shooting him on the body, but was acquitted of the offence.

A further charge against Kennedy, alleging that he attempted to defeat the ends of justice on March 4, 2006 by setting fire to a Fiat Ducato van at Auchenhowie Road, Milngavie, was also found not proven.

Kennedy’s lawyers claimed that it was notorious Glasgow gangster Kevin ‘The Gerbil’ Carroll - who was himself killed in 2010 - who murdered Mr Campbell.

During the trial, Carroll’s former brother-in-law Alexander Sutherland, 32, gave evidence saying Carroll had told him that he killed Mr Campbell. 

The trial heard that forensic scientists using new techniques had found DNA which "could" belong to Kennedy on bullets recovered from the street where Mr Campbell was shot. 

Jurors heard how police recovered six spent bullets from the alleged murder scene. 

The court was told the bullets contained the DNA from three different people, and that analysis found that one of the DNA profiles may belong to Mr Kennedy. 

In his closing speech to jurors, Steven Borthwick, prosecuting, urged the jurors to convict the men.

He said the evidence showed that Darren Eadie organised the plot, Morton Eadie acted as the getaway driver, Fisher stole the S Max and set fire to it following the murder, and that Kennedy was the gunman.

Mr Borthwick said that the law showed all were responsible Mr Reilly’s murder, and that jurors should convict them all of the charge. 

Sentencing the four men to life terms for Kenny Reilly's murder, judge Lord Beckett said: "People who are prepared to engage in such meticulously planned and ruthlessly perpetrated assassination on the streets of our cities can expect substantial punishment."

Lord Beckett pointed out that six shots were fired from an automatic pistol during the murder of Mr Reilly "from some distance" as the innocent driver sought to reverse when her passenger, the target for the attack, realised what was happening.

Only one round hit him on the head with catastrophic results.

The judge added: "While the attack was plainly directed at Kenneth Reilly, it showed gross indifference to the safety of the driver and the public."

Lord Beckett told Darren Eadie that he took particular account of the role he played in organising the crime and recruiting some of the others.

He said that in Kennedy's case a previous conviction from 2008 at the High Court in Glasgow for firearms offence which resulted in 54 months imprisonment was of particular significance

After sentencing the quartet of killers, the judge told the 13 jurors who returned verdicts - and two former colleagues who were on the jury at the start of the lengthy trial - that in view of the "harrowing" nature of some of the evidence, they would be exempt from further jury service for life.

All four were found guilty of murdering Mr Reilly at the junction of Maryhill Road and Bilsland Drive on April 16 in 2018 by repeatedly discharging a firearm at him and shooting him in the head, leaving him so severely injured that he died two days later at Glasgow Royal Infirmary. Both Fisher and Kennedy bowed their heads as the verdicts were returned.

They were all also convicted of attempting to defeat the ends of justice on April 16 in 2018 by setting fire to a Ford S-Max car used in the hit on land at Craigieburn Gardens, in Glasgow, in a bid to destroy evidence linking them to the murder.

The offences were aggravated by a connection with serious organised crime.