1989 RELEASED AFTER A TV PROBE 2009 CAGED FOR SAVAGE KILLING.

Byline: Paul O'Hare

AN EX-CONVICT cleared of bank robbery thanks to the BBC's Rough Justice programme was jailed yesterday for killing a neighbour in a 15-minute frenzy of violence.

Ernest Barrie, 54, got nine years for the horrific assault on defenceless Alan Hughes.

He stabbed his victim repeatedly and battered him with a toilet cistern lid, a walking stick and a metal pole.

Alan, 38, suffered 47 injuries and bled to death at the scene.

Barrie was jailed for 18 years in 1986 for stealing pounds 40,000 from the Clydesdale Bank in Blantyre, Lanarkshire.

But he was freed in 1989 after Rough Justice video experts said a CCTV image of the robber inside the bank could not be him.

Appeal judges later quashed Barrie's conviction but he landed back in court after killing Alan at the tower block where they lived in Glasgow's Gorbals in July 2007.

Psychotic

Barrie was originally charged with murder but was convicted of the lesser crime of culpable homicide after the High Court in Glasgow heard he was suffering from a "psychotic illness" at the time.

Four out of six psychiatrists who examined Barrie said he had been mentally ill. He was assessed at the state hospital at Carstairs before his court appearance.

Barrie's lawyer, Des Finnieston, told the court: "At the time, Mr Barrie was clearly unwell and that was a major factor in the way this incident developed.

"From an early stage, he has accepted his responsibility for the death of Mr Hughes and is genuinely remorseful.

"In respect of the incident itself, his recall is very hazy."

Lord Matthews told Barrie his guilty plea had saved him from a 12-year sentence.

He ordered the killer to be supervised for three years after his release, saying: "I have to make sure the public is protected from you."

CAPTION(S):

BACK INSIDE: Ernest Barrie in 1993