By Rory Cassidy

Copyright dailyrecord

A man caged for life over the brutal doorstep execution of Tony Ferns is an ex-gun runner once jailed for a plot to smuggle terrifying weapons into Scotland. Craig Colquhoun was jailed last week for being part of the mob who launched a fatal knife attack on popular tiler Tony Ferns in Thornliebank, East Renfrewshire in April 2019. Colquhoun was the getaway driver for double killer Raymond Platt, whisking him away from the scene in the Motability Audi Q2 car belonging to his then-partner’s mum. The Record can now reveal that Colquhoun was only able to help Platt and fellow murder mob members Robert Park, 69, and Joseph McCulloch, 50, with the deadly plot after being released from prison. He was jailed in 2013 for a gun-running plot which saw him paying a soldier thousands of pounds to smuggle deadly weapons into Scotland from England. Colquhoun, of Barrhead , East Renfrewshire, was the right-hand-man for Barry Kelly and embroiled in an arms smuggling scheme which saw lethal firearms moved throughout the UK. The 39-year-old’s role in the gun ring emerged when a drunk soldier ferrying the weapons north to Glasgow abandoned them at a train station in England. William Dempsey left two Army camouflage bags containing an Uzi sub-machine gun with silencer, a handgun and a sawn-off double-barrelled shotgun at Carlisle station. Dempsey – a mortarman with the 5th Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland , at the time – had left his identification papers and 194 rounds of ammunition in the bags, which had his name embroidered on them. The soldier, of Paisley, Renfrewshire , had been on a train bound for Glasgow and was dressed in desert combat uniform. He told staff at the train station there were snipers waiting for him there and that he was being followed by police officers. Dempsey had collected the firearms in Canterbury, Kent, where the soldier’s barracks were, and they were destined for Kelly, of Darvel , East Ayrshire. The weapons and ammunition were discovered on August 17, 2012, and Colquhoun was described as Kelly’s “lieutenant” when they appeared at Liverpool Crown Court over the case in 2013. An investigation revealed Colquhoun had been captured on CCTV at the Royal Bank of Scotland in Paisley paying £3,500 into Dempsey’s account. Fran Gough, Senior Crown Prosecutor for the North West Complex Casework Unit , said at the time: “William Dempsey was the courier, Barry Kelly was the purchaser, whilst Craig Colquhoun was Kelly’s right-hand man. “These dangerous individuals and their weapons were intercepted and have now both been removed from the streets where they can pose no further risk.” Dempsey was jailed for eight years, Kelly for nine years and Colquhoun for seven years. But their sentences were later reduced to six years and eight months for Dempsey, five years and 10 months for Colquhoun and seven-and-a-half years for Kelly. When Colquhoun appeared at the High Court in Glasgow last week over the murder of Ferns, 33, Lord Fairley blasted the gang over the killing. He said : “This was not, as is sometimes seen in these courts, a fight that got out of hand. This was a targeted and pre-planned assassination.” Colquhoun was jailed for 20 years, Park was handed the same sentence, McCulloch was jailed for 18 years, and Platt – who has been implicated in two other knife killings – was given 23 years. In 1995, Platt went on trial accused of killing Daniel Harley by stabbing him to death in a Govan taxi office , but he was cleared of the fatal attack. In 1999, he admitted killing 20 year-old Marc Hayes in Govan and was caged for 14 years. And he was jailed for nine years in 2013 for the attempted murder of Edward Bennett , again in Govan. He had only been released from that sentence eight months before killing Ferns.