Man dies and second injured after stabbings in Pollok, reports say a dozen men involved in murder, small children in the house

Dear All

Crime is at a 32 year old which is good, but unfortunately it isn’t at zero.

Knife crime remains politically topical as politicians fight over stats and how well or not government is doing when tackling the problem.

But no matter who is in government, knife crime will still occur, simply because people are people.

And on occasion they do wicked things.

A murder probe is under way after a man was stabbed to death following a disturbance in a Glasgow house.

Gordon Mooney was only 38, when was stabbed several times by a gang who stormed into his house in Pollok.

I grew up in Pollok myself; it is an area with problems, some of which are serious.

During the incident a second man was also stabbed during but is said to be in a stable condition in the city’s Southern General Hospital.

The attack in Barnbeth Road happened around 9.15pm last night after several cars pulled up outside the house.

There was said to be at least a dozen men who stormed through the front door.
After a frenzied attack lasting a few moments, they returned to the cars and sped off.

The death may have been related to a family feud involving the brother of Mr Mooney’s partner.

So, it seems that the Police may have a positive line of enquiry to follow.

Mr Mooney recently became a father.

And he lived just doors along from his parents, John and Margaret.

Police said they were treating the incident as murder.

Today the area remained cordoned off as police probed the attack.

Officers today stood guard at a row of terraced houses in the street and a nearby wooded area had also been sealed off.

One man said the cordon stretched further along the street and he wasn’t allowed access to his home until after midnight last night.

The man, who did not want to be named, said:

"Forensic officers must have been here until about 2am. I know victim is a new father and his partner has other children of her own. It would have been awful if the children were in the house at the time. Relatives of the man live close by and I was told his father was let through the cordon by police."

Particularly next door to the murder scene is the children’s nursery at Lyoncross.

Other residents said they first they knew of anything wrong was when police turned up in the street.

One woman said:

"I am shocked by this. Many of us have grandchildren who play here but it makes you think again about letting them play outside."

Pollok like every community has episodes of when tragic things happen, the killers of Gordon Mooney will probably be caught and sent to prison.

But the incident with ignite the debate on knife crime, even one death is too many, perhaps it is time for cross party consensus instead of the political football approach adopted by the Labour Party which wasn’t helpful.

Despite having years to produce a knife crime bill, not once during the entire last Parliament did they bring forward serious proposals.

Knife crime for them was an election gimmick used by Labour politicians as part of their ‘get elected’ arsenal.

I feel really sorry for the family of Gordon Mooney.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University