Two men murdered man with machete outside Rutherglen pub

Two men are facing life in jail for the murder of a man in an apparent revenge attack.

Callum Summers, 29, and Craig McColl, 24, teamed up to target Stuart McGeachie near a pub in Farmeloan Road in Rutherglen on October 24, 2023.

The 38-year-old victim was fatally struck once with a machete.

The pair had gone on trial at the High Court in Glasgow for the murder.

Summers was convicted by a jury while McColl had pleaded guilty to the charge midway through the case.

They had their remand in custody was continued by Judge Lord Colbeck, and they will learn the minimum they will spend behind bars next month.

In his closing speech to jurors, prosecutor Bill McVicar said the pair had acted together despite only one blow being inflicted.

There was said to have been bad blood – involving violence – between McColl, his father and his brother.

On the day of the murder, the McGeachies were in Rutherglen when the killers “got together pretty quickly” to McColl’s home to fetch machetes.

Mr McVicar: “The attack was for revenge, pure and simple.”

Within minutes, they returned and attacked the victim, who was struck in the neck while he was outside the town’s Victoria Bar.

He staggered into the pub for help as the assailants fled the scene.

Mr McGeachie suffered “catastrophic” blood loss.

Mr McVicar: “The plan was plainly to do harm to Stuart McGeachie or anyone who got in the way.”

One of the killers was said to have later boasted that Mr McGeachie had been “chopped”.

Summers was heard to tell an associate after the killing that he was “f****d” as he had been identified as being at the scene that day.

He was said to have escaped to Leeds in Yorkshire while also applying for a new passport, claiming he had lost his previous one.

He returned to Glasgow, but then tried to get away from the police by climbing out a second-floor window of a flat in the city’s East End.

Mr McVicar said Summers could not be convicted by “simply being there”.

He instead stated a plan had been “hatched” by both killers, who each armed themselves before the attack.

Sentencing was adjourned for reports.

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