Published: Thursday, 22nd July, 2010 9:39am

Pub boss guilty of murder

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By Ewan McInnes

A PUB boss who stabbed a drinker to death in the middle of his packed bar faces life in jail.

John McCarron, 42, knifed William Auld a total of 16 times hours after an Old Firm game in January this year.

Mr Auld was brutally set upon at the Cavendish Bar in Glasgow's Nitshill after he stepped into a row over a bottle of vodka.

Neilston man McCarron denied being responsible but prosecutors insisted it was he who 'butchered' the 45 year-old dad.

A jury at the High Court in Glasgow convicted him of murder following a two-week trial, last Friday.

Three females jurors appeared emotional as the verdict was returned.

Judge Sean Murphy QC remanded McCarron in custody and deferred sentencing until next month.

Friends and relatives of the killer broke down in tears as McCarron was led to the cells.

The trial heard how the attack happened on January 3 at the bar which McCarron ran for the previous eight years.

Mr Auld had gone there having watched that day's Old Firm match on TV at home.

A row broke out around closing time when the girlfriend of Mr Auld's son attempted to buy a bottle of vodka.

Mr Auld tried to calm the situation down but raging McCarron raced from behind the bar armed with a knife.

McCarron then repeatedly stabbed the man in front of stunned drinkers at the packed pub resulting in his death.

The killer claimed during the trial that he had gone to remove Mr Auld from the bar as he believed he had been the 'aggressor'.

He said Mr Auld had fallen before a 'mass rammy' of other people began attacking the dad.

McCarron told the jury that the only time he handled a knife that evening was when he had confiscated one from a man who had visited his bar.

The court was also shown pictures of an array of weapons found at the pub - including a baseball bat, machete and a hammer.

McCarron said some of them had been 'lying about for years' and that the machete was used to remove old mop heads.

The Cavendish Bar was the first pub in Glasgow to have its licence suspended for a year after the killing.