Hell's Angel killer freed

Friday 20 May 1994 23:02 BST

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A HELL'S ANGELS leader was freed from a life sentence yesterday after spending five years in jail because he refused to break a gang pledge never to help the police.

Teesside Crown Court was told that John Megson, 34, vice-president of the Druids motorcycle gang from Sheffield, refused to give evidence at his trial in 1989 for the knife murder of Steven Rowley, 19, in a fight at a camp-site. The victim's blood was found on his sleeve.

Last September, however, a woman volunteered the name of the man she saw inflict the fatal wounds, and the Court of Appeal ordered a retrial.

Substituting a seven-year sentence for manslaughter, which Megson admitted, the judge said any injustice was of his own making.

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