A VIOLENT and dangerous criminal who brutally attacked a US tourist who later died had his minimum jail sentence slashed yesterday.
Colin Ross had been given a 20-year term – but is now eligible to apply for parole next year after that was cut to eight.
But he was warned by one Appeal Court judge that he may still never be freed because he poses such a danger to women.
Last night, there were calls for the decision to be scrutinised and a friend of Ross’s victim said he should stay in prison for the rest of his life.
Retired minister Sheila McLachlan revealed people were still scared to walk alone along the Great Glen Way, where Ross ambushed Vermont teacher Marty Layman-Mendonca.
During the horrific attack in July 2006, he bludgeoned her 19 times with a metal pipe and a boulder.
He tied her hands together with a shoelace, took her rucksack and money and left her in a ditch.
Ms Layman-Mendonca, 57, who suffered brain injuries, was found by a police dog.
She spent two months in a coma in Raigmore Hospital in the Highland capital before being flown back to America in September, just a few weeks after Ross, who is from Inverness, admitted the attack.
Ms Layman-Mendonca died at the end of October.
Ross, who was then aged 34, was jailed for a minimum of 20 years after admitting attempted murder.
He was the first person in Scotland to be made subject to an Order of Lifelong Restriction.
It meant he could only be released with the approval of the parole board after serving his minimum sentence.
But the case was referred to the Court of Criminal Appeal earlier this year by watchdog body the Scottish Criminal Case Review Commission, which said there may have been a miscarriage of justice.
Ross has benefited from a legal decision which changed the way minimum sentences are calculated.
That followed a case brought by two convicted sex offenders, Morris Petch and Robert Foye.
In a ruling published yesterday, judges said that the original judge erred in determining Ross’s minimum sentence.
They have cut his minimum term to just eight years, meaning Ross could now ask for parole next year. But Lady Paton, sitting with Lord Mackay of Drumadoon and Lord Drummond Young, said that given Ross’s previous offending and the high risk of him carrying out another attack, the parole board “will undoubtedly be very cautious” when considering his release.
She added that he would need “24-hour surveillance”, and the board “may never be in a position to consider his release, even with the most intensive supervision”.
She added that the judges had cut the minimum sentence “with great reluctance” because of his “extremely dangerous nature”.
Ms Layman-Mendonca’s daughter Jody could not be reached for comment yesterday, but one of the 57-year-old tourist’s friends in Inverness said Ross should never be released.
Retired Church of God minister Sheila McLachlan said: “We do not want him let out. He has a bad record – this is not a man who committed one crime.”
She added that the attack still resonated with members of the church, and even now people did not like to walk alone on the Great Glen Way.
Scottish Conservative justice spokeswoman Margaret Mitchell said: “It’s impossible to imagine how the family of the victim are feeling about this.
“This decision has to be scrutinised, and answers must be given on how and why it was reached.”