Lee Docherty's criminal record includes attempted murder aged 12

Docherty shouted, 'Die' as he rained multiple blows with a baseball bat down on the head of his victim, who was left with permanent brain damage following the brutal attack shortly before Christmas in 1998.

Court proceedings have prevented the publication of Docherty's police mugshot and details of his two-decade-old criminal record until now.

The nine-year sentence handed out to him at the High Court in Glasgow on Monday - a week after his 38th birthday - for causing the deaths of three friends in a high-speed crash on the M8 brought to an end all live cases against him.

We can now reveal that his first conviction came in 2000 for the attempted murder of the teen.

Lee Docherty (Image: Police Scotland)

Docherty was one of five who stood trial at the High Court in Edinburgh at the turn of the century, four of whom were found guilty by a jury, after inflicting life-threatening injuries on the youth.

READ MORE: Greenock drugs gang boss Lee Docherty 'forgiven' for fatal M8 crash that killed three

Following the vicious attack, Docherty was said to have turned to a companion who had earlier struck the victim with a golf club, shook hands and said: ''Well done.”

The victim was left permanently impaired after being chased and battered by the gang and Docherty was sentenced to five years detention.

His three accomplices were each sentenced to seven years for the brutal assault.

A report from the sentencing hearing said that the sickening incident followed earlier trouble as rival groups from different parts of Larkfield ‘spent their evening roaming the streets, drinking cider and vodka’.

Docherty, who hung around with the ‘Bottom End’ gang, denied attempting to murder the victim, who associated with the rival 'Top Enders’, and had strayed too close to ‘enemy territory’ on the night he was attacked at Burns Square.

Special arrangements were made to allow Docherty to sit at a table with his lawyer instead of in the dock and there were lengthy breaks to help him concentrate on the evidence.

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A 15-year-old girl told the court that she had been in the victim’s company before leaving him to catch a bus home.

He ran past, being chased by one attacker, who hit him on the head with a golf club.

The girl told the court: “He just lay there and never moved...kept hitting him with the golf club on the side of the head.''

About seven ‘very hard’ blows were struck with the driver while the youth lay still, making no attempt to defend himself.

Docherty was next to arrive and he struck the boy five or six times on the head with a baseball bat.

The girl told the court: “He was shouting 'Die!’. He shook [other attacker's] hand and said 'Well done,'."

Lee Docherty (Image: Facebook)

The jury heard that the victim was still 'out cold' when the other two attackers, along with two unknown assailants, kicked him ten to 15 times.

The victim’s mother said her son's next memory was waking up in intensive care a week later and the attack robbed him of his power of speech for several months.

Passing sentence, Lady Cosgrove told the perpetrators: ''You have each been found guilty of the crime of attempted murder involving an unprovoked and brutal attack on a defenceless young man.

''In sentencing you I have to take into consideration that the attack, with weapons, was persisted in in a callous fashion even after the victim had been knocked to the ground and rendered unconscious, and has had a severe and permanent effect on him.''

Docherty admitted earlier this week to falling asleep behind the wheel of a hired Audi Q7 that was overloaded with eight people and drifted onto the hard shoulder after travelling at 127mph near Langbank at 5am on September 19, 2021.

M8 crash victims Manveer Benning, David Paton and Mark Downie (Image: NQ)

The car smashed down an embankment, careered through a fence, some trees and bushes and barrel-rolled into a field where it ended up on its roof, throwing Manveer Benning, Mark Downie and David Paton – who were not wearing seatbelts – out of the vehicle and causing fatal injuries to the trio.

He received an eight-year jail term in April after pleading guilty to being the ringleader of an organised crime group responsible for flooding Inverclyde with cocaine, heroin, cannabis and pills from a Larkfield base known as ‘the shop’ – making hundreds of thousands of pounds in the process.

Docherty and four accomplices were imprisoned for a total of more than 31 years between them for producing and supplying the drugs.

His record also includes other assault, drug and road traffic offences, while the High Court heard earlier this week that a separate serious organised crime case against him has been abandoned by prosecutors.

Docherty is now set to spend more than 16 years locked up.