Notorious underworld hitman Ricardo Blanco is back behind bars for attempting to behead a man in a French city. The Glasgow assassin - nicknamed The Mad Spaniard - attacked his victim with a sabre which caused his jaw to split in two, sliced his ear and left him with a 20cm gash from his temple to his neck.
Blanco, 61, is now languishing in prison after being sentenced to 22 years for the attack on his 43-year-old victim who is believed to have been the son of his girlfriend at the time.
A French prison source said: "Blanco just can't stay out of trouble however hard he tries. He went straight for a short time after he was released from prison in Scotland but it doesn't take long for his violent nature to take over what any sense he has.
"His victim was in surgery for over three hours while surgeons repaired the laceration which could have decapitated him. It took 40 stitches to close it up."
The source added: "Blanco had a fight with his victim who had asked Blanco to stop harassing his step-father. Blanco returned later with the sabre and attacked the man. In court he claimed it was self-defence when he was surrounded by four men who demanded cocaine who led him down a dead-end lane. He said he was frightened he was going to be killed so he defended himself. The court did not agree with his version."
Blanco carried out the attack in 2011 but wasn't put on trial until 2014 in Perpignan Criminal Court. And he was back in court in 2017 after he attacked a prisoner with a fork when he became enraged he couldn't recover contraband cannabis from his cell window.
The victim told the court: "He was yo-yoing by the window to recover cannabis. I had a roll, I tried to do two. And the yo-yo came back empty. It drove him crazy."
Blanco then threw himself on his fellow prisoner, kicked him in the jaw, kicked and punched him, then grabbed a fork, hitting him in the head, yelling: "I'm going to kill you, you have to die”.
The victim said: "I saw death before me. Afterwards, he pressed the button to alert the supervisors while butting his head against the wall to make believe that I had hit him." The man lost consciousness and woke up in the hospital.
Sources said the court was surrounded by a ring of steel as Blanco was escorted with heavily armed police to face the judge. He was given an additional eight-months on top of his 22 year sentence.
We can exclusively reveal his latest crime as police launched a fresh appeal for help in finding the body of drugs courier Paul Thorne who was executed in Ayrshire in 1988. Blanco was kicked out of Scotland in 2006 after serving 17 years for the brutal slaying of 28-year-old Paul.
Paul, from Bristol, was shot dead in a remote wooded area near the village of Moscow in Ayrshire in October, 1988. He had arrived in Glasgow earlier that day with a £30,000 consignment of the drug Amphetamine Sulphate.
His job was to hand over the drugs and take the cash back to gang bosses in Bristol. Instead, he was lured down to Fenwick Moor on a pretext and killed.
Four other men, John Paul McFadyen, Thomas Collins, Thomas Currie and Stephen Mitchell stood trial with Blanco for his murder and three McFadyen, Blanco and Collins were found guilty. Despite a massive police search, Thorne's body was never found.
Police Scotland said they are keen for any new information as to the possible location of his remains.
Detective Chief Inspector Brian Geddes, of Homicide Governance and Review, added: “Three men were convicted in connection with the death of Paul Thorne in 1988.
"Mr Thorne’s remains have never been found. Should any new information be received it will be fully assessed and considered for the feasibility of a search. Anyone who may have information about this matter is asked to contact Police Scotland via 101.”
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