Man dumped body into wheelie bin

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A heroin user who dumped a man's body into a wheelie bin after giving him a fatal dose of the drug has been jailed.

Gary McGowan, 40, from Stirling, admitted disposing of John McAnish via the bin which was then emptied at a landfill site near Falkirk last April.

Mr McAnish's remains were eventually found in June 2008 following a huge search operation by police.

McGowan was jailed for four years and three months after pleading guilty at the High Court in Glasgow.

The court was told that both McGowan and local musician John McAnish had gone to the accused's home to inject heroin.

Prosecutor Simon Bowie told the court that when the 45-year-old father-of-two overdosed McGowan panicked. Having supplied drugs to John McAnish and having found him dead the following morning, you then embarked on an appalling course of conduct Judge Lady Smith

To cover his tracks, he kept the body at his house for six days then put it into his wheelie bin.

It was later taken away by binmen and its contents dumped at Avondale landfill site near Polmont.

Mr Bowie said: "The accused knew that the bin would be collected and the contents disposed of by council employees.

"Furthermore, knowing that there was a missing persons inquiry by the police, he activated the mobile phone belonging to the deceased in an attempt to give a false impression that the deceased was still alive and operating the phone.

"The accused, acting with others, also removed two bloodstained sofas from the house, poured accelerant on them and set fire to them."Mr McAnish died after taking heroin on 2 April, 2008

Sentencing McGowan, Judge Lady Smith said: "The charges to which you have pled guilty are serious matters.

"Having supplied drugs to John McAnish and having found him dead the following morning, you then embarked on an appalling course of conduct.

"It showed an appalling lack of respect for this dead man and a lack of respect for those related to him and those who had to find this body."

McGowan, formerly of McPherson Drive, Stirling, admitted culpably and recklessly supplying heroin to Mr McAnish, formerly of Alloa Road, Causewayhead, Stirling, and killing him at McPherson Drive on 2 April, 2008.

He also pleaded guilty to attempting to defeat the ends of justice by hiding the body in his house, activating Mr McAnish's mobile phone so that police thought he was still alive, dumping his body in the bin and setting fire to bloodstained sofas between 2-8 April last year.

Defence advocate Mark Stewart QC told the court that McGowan was ashamed of his actions.