1994: A man wearing a balaclava walks into a crowded Indian restaurant in Kirkwall, the tiny capital of the isolated Orkney Islands, in the north of Scotland. He fires a gun once into the head of young waiter Shamsuddin Mahmood, who dies instantly. The finger of suspicion is pointed at local PC Eddy Ross’s 15-year-old son Michael. There are rumours the pair are racists but police don’t have enough evidence to charge Michael with murder.

1997: Michael Ross joins the Black Watch infantry battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland and is posted to Iraq and Afghanistan where he joins an elite sniper unit. Soldier Michael takes down at least a dozen terrorists and is caught in a car bomb attack.

Back in the Orkneys, a resident admits he saw Michael Ross near the restaurant on the night of the murder. Ross is brought back to face justice in the high court of Glasgow. But he has hatched a chilling plan to bomb and kill those he holds responsible when he is found guilty of murder. Ross continues to plead his innocence. Was he a convenient vehicle for the racist beliefs of others? If he is innocent, it would be the final twist in an extraordinary true story.

THE BLACK WATCH FIREARMS SPECIALIST WHO HID A MURDEROUS SECRET

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