When Stella McGuire closes her eyes, she can see the bloodstains on the windowsill of the top-floor flat where an arson attack claimed the lives of six members of the same family, including an 18-month-old baby.
The deaths of the Doyle family in Glasgow’s infamous Ice Cream Wars and the sights and sounds of that night left an indelible mark on the then 12-year-old. Stella, who lived in a flat that faced the Doyles’ home, was woken from her sleep by the frantic shouts for help of the trapped family and she dialled 999.
Now, almost 40 years on, Stella is speaking publicly for the first time about what happened. She gives her harrowing recollection of events in a new two-part BBC Scotland documentary, The Ice Cream Wars, which tells the story of the vicious gang war which tore through Glasgow’s tough housing estates in the early 80s, an infamous miscarriage of justice and a crime which remains unsolved.
