Man who tried to murder jailed gangster's brother in supermarket machete attack handed prison sentence

A man who tried to murder the brother of a jailed gangster in a machete attack at a supermarket has been jailed for 15 years.

George ‘Dode’ Baigrie launched the attack on the man hours after he received a police visit warning him of threats to his safety.

A judge told Baigrie at the High Court in Edinburgh: “This attack had all the hallmarks of a gangland vendetta.”

Lord Young said Baigrie was assessed as being at a high risk of further violent offending and added that he agreed with that assessment.

He pointed out that the machete attacker has previous convictions for offences of serious violence, including an earlier attempted murder in 2003.

Lord Young ordered that Baigrie should be under supervision in the community for a further five year period when he will be on licence and can be returned to jail if he breaches its conditions.

The judge said the attempted murder took place in the middle of the evening when people of all ages were in the shop and some of them could be seen on CCTV footage taking evasive action as Baigrie chased his target armed with a machete.

Baigrie, 42, sliced into the arm of the victim with the weapon before pursuing him in the aisles of the Tesco store at Gracemount Drive in Edinburgh, before the man managed to escape.

Shoppers and staff witnessed the horrifying assault and calls were made to emergency services as Baigrie, who was wearing a camouflage snood, ran to a waiting getaway car.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard that the victim arrived at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary with a serious wound to his left wrist and was transferred by emergency ambulance to St John’s Hospital, in Livingston, where he underwent a ten-hour operation to repair injuries.

The machete wounds had cut to the bone and caused serious damage to multiple tendons, completely severed nerves and sliced through the ulnar artery.

The court heard that the severing of the artery could have caused the victim to bleed to death without medical treatment.

Baigrie and his co-accused Kevin Richardson, 24, earlier denied attempting to murder the man on November 11 in 2021 at the store by pursuing him, repeatedly attempting to strike him on the body with a machete and striking him with the weapon to his severe injury, permanent impairment and disfigurement and to the danger of his life.

Baigrie was found guilty of the attempted murder. First offender Richardson, from Edinburgh, who was the getaway driver, was acquitted of the murder bid but convicted of a serious, life endangering assault on the victim.

Richardson was jailed for six years after Lord Young told him: “You acted as the driver for your co-accused in this pre-planned attack on [the victim].”

The judge said: “You played a significant role in a pre-planned attack which had the appearance of a gangland dispute.”

Baigrie was also convicted of the unlawful possession of a machete on November 11 in 2021.

The court heard that earlier on the day of the machete attack, police visited Baigrie’s home at Lodeneia Park, Dalkeith, in Midlothian, to inform him they were aware of “credible threats to his personal safety”.

Baigrie wanted to know where the threats were coming from and prosecutor Leanne Cross said that was because he wanted to take matters into his own hands. Baigrie responded: “No, so I knew who to avoid.”

The advocate depute asked him if he knew the victim and he said: “Know of him.” She asked if he knew his brother and he said: “Know of him.”

Baigrie told the court: “I didn’t know where the threat was coming from.”

The man had made a regular trip to pick up a child from football before the attack was launched on him at the supermarket.

Jurors were shown CCTV footage compiled by police of a car owned by Kevin Richardson driving out to Dalkeith before returning to Edinburgh, where it was seen tracking the victim’s car and parking up before the machete attack was launched.

When police searched Baigrie’s home, they found two machetes and sheaths for other machetes. They also recovered a pair of white Adidas trainers with blood from the victim on them.

Baigrie accepted the trainers were his but claimed that they had been worn by another man who committed the attack.

He accepted that he had knives and machetes at his home but maintained that was because of his interest in “country sports”. He would hunt game and skin and gut animals as they were prepared as meat.

Baigrie was named during the trial in 2021 of Sean Orman, who was jailed for life for murdering T2 Trainspotting actor and former boxer Bradley Welsh, who was fatally shot outside his flat in Edinburgh in April 2019. It was claimed Orman was doing “jobs” for Baigrie.

The Crown served papers on Baigrie as it moved to seek the court to impose a serious crime prevention order on him.