The Kirkleatham Showground murder brought drug dealing, gang rivalries and a brutal killing to a quiet North-East village. Chris Webber looks back at a crime that shocked the region.

THE pictures show a man sprawled face down in a field at night, a young man with half his back blown off, a father whose life ended abruptly.

The pictures are far too shocking for publication, but they show the lifeless body of 26-year-old Bryan Scott, an unemployed painter and decorator - and cocaine dealer.

He was shot dead by Tony Bottrill on the night of Saturday, March 18, in 2000, at Kirkleatham Showground, near the village of Kirkleatham, on the outskirts of Redcar, east Cleveland.

The young victim, from nearby Marske, had become involved in the murky world of drug dealing.

To some, that might in itself be enough for him to be dismissed as just another member of the criminal underworld, and yet the story that emerges from court statements about Bryan Scott tells a different tale.

It is the story of a young man who had taken a wrong turning but who could, very easily, have ended up living the life of an everyday father and husband.

Mr Scott moved to Marske from Edinburgh aged two after his mother separated from her first husband.

He and his brother, Bruce, had an unremarkable small-town upbringing. He gained five GCSEs from Bydales Comprehensive School; he ran for New Marske Hammers Athletic Club; and he swam for Saltburn Swimming Club.

His mother, Helen Watson, told the court he was loving and caring.

Still a teenager he had a son, Kieran, in 1993 and settled down with his girlfriend, Nicola Cobb, before securing a Prince's Trust grant to start his own decorating business.

There were no crimes, no problems - until class A drugs entered his life.

At one point in 1999, he had to borrow £3,000 to pay off mysterious debts and a gun was pushed through his letter box. From that point on, the stories of his increasing involvement with the underworld began to grow, until the time of his death.

Yet his family remember the normal young man with a young son.

Earlier this year, his mother declined to say anything other than she was convinced of Tony Bottrill's guilt. "He can still talk with his family," she said. "That's something I can never do again with my son."

Yet Bottrill denies having fired the gun that killed Mr Scott and, more than four years on, Redcar remains awash with theories as to who carried out the shooting.

There are stories, some of which were repeated in court, of unpaid drug debts and of Teesside gangs visiting Redcar.

But the fact is that Bottrill is serving a life sentence with a recommendation to serve seven years for the murder. The jury was told that Bottrill had tried to set up his friend's former husband for murder.

Softly-spoken Bottrill, who was also convicted of manslaughter in 1977, accepts that many will always be convinced of his guilt.

A seemingly intelligent man, he chose his words carefully.

"It's in no one's interest that I'm released so I don't think I will be.

"It would make the police look bad and Bryan Scott's family think I did it and who am I, really? But I didn't do it. I didn't want to kill Bryan, I don't want anybody to die, but there's a distinct possibility that I'll die in here."

Appeal Court judges will now decide if he is telling the truth.