Killer of Tipu given jail term extension

A prisoner serving a life sentence after the coldblooded killing of a Sunderland dad and takeaway boss has been given more jail time after trying to take the blame for a nightclub shooting.

Michael McDougall, 50, was found guilty of perverting the course of justice following a shooting at Tup Tup Palace in Newcastle in 2015.

McDougall is serving more than 30 years behind bars for the killing of takeaway owner Tipu Sultan.

Following the shooting at Tup Tup, in which a 24-year-old doorman was shot in the arm when a gunman on a motorbike opened fire using a sawnoff shotgun, Michael Dixon, 50, of Walker in Newcastle, was found guilty of conspiracy to possess a firearm with intent to endanger life by a jury at the Old Bailey in London last month.

Dixon, of Walker, was yesterday sentenced to life with a minimum term of eight years. John Henry Sayers, 54, of Walker, was convicted of perverting the course of justice along with McDougall.

The court heard McDougall, after meeting Sayers in HMP Wakefield while Sayers was on remand awaiting trial for the Tup Tup Palace shooting, falsely told police he had fired the gun.

A jury found both Sayers and McDougall, previously of Hylton Avenue, Marsden, South Shields, guilty of perverting the course of justice.

Sayers was jailed for five years, but will serve threeand-a-half years due to time spent on remand.

McDougall, of no fixed address, was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment consecutive to the life sentence he is serving.

McDougall was jailed for a life sentence of 34 years in 2016 after he was found guilty of shooting Sunderland dadof-two Mr Sultan, 32, who had run the Herbs & Spice Kitchen takeaway in South Shields.