Grovelling killer: I should have stopped attack
ONE of Mohammed Abu Sammour’s killers wrote a letter to his widow telling her he wished he’d stopped the deadly attack on him.
Scott Pearson, 22, was convicted on Wednesday of murdering 49-year-old security guard Mohammed at a building site in Newarthill, Lanarkshire, in the early hours of October 28 last year.
At the High Court in Glasgow yesterday, the role of his co-accused Ryan Hunter, 28, who admitted killing Mohammed in a botched bid to steal his van, was revealed.
Hunter was originally charged with murder but his guilty plea to the lesser charge of culpable homicide was accepted by the Crown.
In a letter to Mohammed’s family, Hunter said: “If only my character had been stronger at the time to stop this from taking place completely.
“When I imagine Mr Sammour’s cheerful smile from newspapers, my heart breaks as I can only imagine him as being an amazing person, a fun-loving man with the rest of his life ahead of him with wife and children.
“I can’t even begin to imagine the heartache his family must be suffering. There was absolutely no intention of what had went on that night.
“I certainly didn’t expect someone was going to lose their life.
“I can’t stop thinking of what the family of Mr Sammour is going through as they have lost a husband and what I imagine to be an exceptional fun-loving father.
“I myself have broke down in tears when thinking of what has happened to the innocent man.”
Hunter said he wished for the Sammour family’s forgiveness and added: “I hope they can get past this pain in the near future.”
Dad-of-four Mohammed, of Caldercruix, Lanarkshire, was attacked by Pearson and an 18-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and knocked unconscious.
As he lay behind his van, Pearson reversed over Mohammed, leaving him with sickening injuries. He died in hospital.
Prosecutor Murdo McTaggart said: “The accused Hunter, who was in the passenger seat of the van, did not take any physical action to stop Pearson driving in the direction of Mr Sammour.
“He did not get out of the van to move Mr Sammour out of the way.” The prosecutor added: “Although he denied it in evidence during Pearson’s trial, Hunter must have realised that the van had driven over the area where Mr Sammour had been lying and that Mr Sammour must have been struck by the van.
“He did not exit the van or tend to the deceased, nor did he take any steps to summon assistance for him.”
Judge Lord Burns asked defence QC Herbert Kerrigan: “Has Mr Hunter told you what the purpose of taking this van was?”
Kerrigan replied: “The purpose was simply to go joyriding. It was an opportunistic decision to take the van, which they thought was empty.”
Lord Burns deferred sentence on Hunter until next month for background reports.
Pearson will be sentenced at the same time.