Glasgow postmaster and brother cleared of killing customer

A Glasgow postmaster and his brother have been found not guilty killing a complaining customer.

Edward Brown 51, from Renfrew, and Alan Brown, 63, from Craigton, were cleared of culpable homicide following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow.

John McGuire, 56, was said to have gone into the Cardonald Post Office in Glasgow on 25 March 2018 to complain about the cost of posting a parcel.

Prosecutors had said the brothers held Mr McGuire down and stamped on his him.

A jury at the High Court in Glasgow was shown CCTV footage of four people holding Mr Maguire down.

Mr McGuire, who weighed almost 20st (176kg), later died of asphyxia.

Edward Brown said he thought he was being confronted by a possible "madman" that day and had feared for his life.

Relatives of the men sobbed loudly following the verdicts, but the family of Mr McGuire stormed out the courtroom.

Edward Brown said he knew Mr McGuire as a customer who came in once a month.

He recalled Mr McGuire being "very agitated" because felt he had paid too much for a postal item.

Mr McGuire later returned to the shop and "swung a punch" at the postmaster.

Edward Brown said he was grabbed before both men ended up on the ground.

Alan Brown, who was at the shop to drop something off, came to his brother's aid.

Edward Brown he told the court he restrained Mr McGuire because he felt threatened by the "madman", and added: "I am not happy with the outcome, but there was nothing intentional."

His brother recalled the post office being "quite chaotic" and the atmosphere "terrifying". He insisted he was only defending his brother.

Three other people helped hold Mr McGuire down until the police arrived. By then he was "foaming at the mouth" and "grey in colour", a police officer told the court.

Mr McGuire was taken to Queen Elizabeth University Hospital. He was pronounced dead less than 14 minutes later.