Boom Boom Magoo: The killer paid to 'grass' by GMP - and then banged up forever

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

On the newsstands of Glasgow the headlines read 'Boom Boom banged up forever'. But in the headquarters of Greater Manchester Police a frantic post-mortem was taking place.

The day before, Stephen McColl had been given a rare whole life jail sentence after being found guilty of two murders. But during the trial at Liverpool Crown Court it had emerged that the Salford hitman - known as 'Boom Boom Magoo' - in testament to his reputation as a hired gun and a play on his poor eyesight, like the cartoon character 'Mr Magoo' - was on the books as a police informant.

Unwittingly GMP had taken on a cold-hearted killer. In fact just a few months before he began informing on other armed robbers, McColl had claimed his first victim in Greater Manchester. READ MORE: How Man United hooligans ransacked Europe as Red Army, Wide Awake Firm and Intercity Jibbers READ MORE: Cornelius 'Naily Boy' Price: 'Vicious' Irish mobster linked to four killings and his final escape to Greater Manchester McColl wasn't originally from Salford.

He hailed from Glasgow, another tough dock city with a fearsome gang culture of its own. Like many of his fellow criminals in his adopted home his specialism was armed robbery.