Gangland torturer Colin Coats has formed a close bond with drug baron Mark Richardson behind bars.
Killer Coats, 51, told prison chiefs that a knife found in cocaine dealer Richardson’s cell belonged to him. He confessed to owning the weapon after prison guards carried out a search in HMP Glenochil, near Stirling.
Sources say the pair have developed a relationship in the top-security prison. However, insiders cast doubt on Coats’ claim the weapon – found last month – belonged to him.
He is serving a minimum of 33 years for kidnapping and murdering Lynda Spence while Richardson was jailed for eight years and nine months for organised crime offences.
An insider said: “Coats and Richardson spend time with each other every day. They’ve become good pals over the last 12 months.
“Wardens found the weapon in Richardson’s cell but Coats quickly put his hands up to it and said it belonged to him.
“He said it had nothing to do with Richardson within minutes. But a lot of people don’t believe him. Coats is a lifer and Richardson will be released a lot sooner. It makes sense for him to own up.”
Coats grabbed Lynda off the street and held her hostage at a flat in West Kilbride, Ayrshire. He battered her, hacked off parts of her body and tortured her for two weeks over a financial row.
The trial in 2013 heard that Lynda had “ripped people off”. Coats believed she cheated him out of £85,000 in a land deal.
He has refused to reveal how and where he disposed of her body. Police searched a remote area of Argyll in March in a bid to find her remains. Richardson, 35, was jailed in 2019 for his part in an organised crime gang, said to be “the most sophisticated encountered by Police Scotland”.
He was hit with a Serious Crime Prevention Order, meaning he’ll be subject to strict controls when he finally gets out. Richardson, who has links to the Daniel crime gang, was previously jailed – in 2010 – after being caught by police working on a stash of crack cocaine with a street value of £700,000.
A spokesman for the Scottish Prison Service confirmed an incident took place but added: “We don’t comment on individual prisoners.”
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