The right hand man of murderer Tommy Cook was toda

The right hand man of murderer Tommy Cook was today (Tuesday)
given double life sentences for his part in a ‘hideous orgy of
criminal behaviour.

‘
Iain MacPherson, 20, helped 29-year-old Scotsman Cook beat a
sick old man to death with a crow bar for his paltry Giro cheque.

Then days later he was at Cook’s side when he cold-bloodedly
blasted a defenceless couple with a Dirty Harry-style Magnum gun.

The murderers only motive – the victims’ stereo.

Earlier Cook had used the same gun in a fiendish game of
Russion Roulette with a young mum and her two little children,

aged six years and 18 months.

Two brave detectives who ended Cook and MacPherson’s reign of
terror very nearly paid with the lives, the Old Bailey heard
today.

As they tried to arrest him, Cook slowly and calculatingly
raised his arm, aimed and fired at point blank range.

Miracu
lously the lethal Magnum misfired giving the officers precious
seconds to pounce.

MacPherson, from Pinner, Middlesex, claimed he was in fear of
Cook and thought that he might be the next victim if he did
anything to end the savagery.

But the jury rejected his story and found him guilty of mur
dering invalid pensioner Christopher Jabelman, 59, on February 4
last year and Mrs Pauline Russell, 40, nine days later.

Mrs Russell’s husband, Christopher, 28, survived despite being
shot twice.

The murder victims were both killed in their Pinner homes.

Cook, originally from Coatbridge, near Glasgow, earlier admit
ted the two murders, attempted murder, and related offences.

He will be sentenced on February 17.

MacPherson looked stony-faced at his weeping parents in the
public gallery as Judge Brian Smedley QC told him that despite
his age, there was only one sentence he could pass – detention
for life.

A third man, Glynn Reynolds, 37, was jailed for three and a
half years for burgling the house where Cook stole the Magnum and
unlawfully possessing the gun.

Judge Smedley praised the extraordinary courage of the unarmed

police officers who captured Cook and MacPherson.

‘Mercifully the gun misfired.

These officers behaved with
extreme bravery and they should be commended.

‘
ENDS