GLASGOW, Scotland, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- A soldier decorated for his service in Iraq was sentenced to at least 25 years in a Scottish prison Friday for a racially motivated killing in 1994.
Michael Ross was only 15 when he walked into a restaurant in Kirkwall, the major town in the Orkney Islands, and gunned down a Bangladeshi waiter, Shamsuddin Mahmood.
Now 30, Ross remained expressionless as he stood handcuffed in the dock in a Glasgow courtroom, The Scotsman reported.
"This was a vicious, evil, unprovoked murder of a defenseless man," the judge told him, imposing a life sentence with a minimum of 25 years to be served in prison.
Ross, the son of a police officer in the Orkneys, became a suspect shortly after the killing, but police could not find enough evidence for an arrest. The case was reopened last year.
The killing also cost Ross's father his job. Eddie Ross, who was involved in the investigation, served four years for obstruction of justice.
Michael Ross was one of 12 British soldiers serving in Iraq to be decorated in 2005.
