THE life was blasted out of Bryan Scott in a field in a quiet village on the night of Saturday, March 18, 2000.

The body of the young father, engaged to be married and who had been hoping to leave cocaine dealing behind him and return to his law-abiding past, was found face down, covered in blood.

His chance to reform and live a normal life was denied him by Tony Bottrill who fired a sawn off shotgun twice into his body at close range.

Almost as soon as the news of the killing spread from Kirkleatham into Redcar and then across the region, theories began to spread.

Those rumours have never gone away due to Bottrill's continued claims of innocence.

The Northern Echo:

VICTIM: Bryan Scott

That was perhaps inevitable as details involving drugs, debts, rival gangs and love-affairs emerged during the trial of the former soldier and martial arts expert.

Bottrill was convicted in in 2000 on evidence described as "abundant" and on which "a jury could safely convict" by Lady Justice Smith who dismissed his appeal five years later.

What the jury did not know was that Bottrill had already been convicted for the manslaughter of two gay men found knifed to death in their London flat in 1977, although it was a fellow Coldstream Guard who pleaded guilty to their murders.

The jury did have evidence of death-threat letters sent by Bottrill to another alleged Redcar drugs dealer, a man linked to Mr Scott. DNA evidence demonstrated that at least one of those letters was sent by the killer and a handwriting expert said all were written by the same man.

Bottrill was in a relationship with the man's estranged wife at the time.

After the murder yet more letters were sent anonymously, this time to police, which blamed the other man for killing Mr Scott.

Once again the court was told that those letters were written by Bottrill, who detested drug dealers.

There were contrary arguments, of course.

The shotgun used to kill Mr Scott was never found and it emerged the victim had a £15,000 drugs debt and had previously been threatened by a gunman at his home.

Mr Scott was desperate for money and was pinning his hopes on a London cocaine deal that also involved men known by the previously mentioned estranged wife, the person connected to all the key people involved.

Despite all the murky goings on, a picture emerged of Mr Scott as not so much a hard-core drug dealer, but rather a man who had taken a wrong turning in life, but was trying to get back on track. A keen athlete with qualifications, he had previously had his own business and had not been in trouble with the police until Class A drugs entered his life.

His plan was to pay off his debt and settle down. He got engaged just two weeks before his death.

For his part Bottrill claims never to have even met Mr Scott.

Ten years ago The Northern Echo interviewed this large, but quietly spoken man in the depths of Durham's Frankland Prison. He was convincingly sincere as he said: "I didn't want to kill Bryan, I don't want anybody to die, but there's a strong possibility that I'll die in here."

Just a few months later his conviction was upheld, but despite that Bottrill will probably be a free man in 2017 and able to walk the streets again, something Mr Scott was denied.

As his mother once said: "Bottrill can still talk with his family.That's something I can never do again with my son."