| Man dies after afternoon horror plunge at centre |
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| Written by Andrea O'Neill | ||||||
 AN EAST Kilbride father plunged to his death from the twelfth floor of a town centre car park on Saturday afternoon as shoppers looked on in horror.
The 37-year-old father-of-two, who fell more than 60 feet from Centre West’s multi-storey car park, is believed to be troubled former Murray resident Douglas James Cochrane. The horrific incident, which happened just after lunchtime on one of the busiest shopping days of the year, was believed to have been witnessed by store workers and shoppers. Police and ambulance crews raced to the scene near to the Debenhams staff entrance and rushed Mr Cochrane to Hairmyres hospital where he died forty minutes later after suffering severe injuries to his head and chest. Police have confirmed there were no suspicious circumstances. A shocked store employee told the East Kilbride Mail on Monday: “I couldn’t believe it when I walked into work and heard about this, it’s awful. I heard two young girls who work here found him and a lot of people saw it happen. It’s tragic.” Mr Cochrane, who had been suffering from depression, was serving three years probation for a botched suicide attempt in March 2009. He pleaded guilty to culpably and recklessly endangering the lives of occupants in neighbouring flats by cutting a mains gas pipe in Denholm Crescent. During the trial a fire report concluded that, had the gas ignited, it would have caused a large explosion. He told the court he was “going through a rough patch” because he was not seeing his children and had “had enough”, but insisted he didn’t want to blow anything up. This was one of three failed attempts to take his own life. Originally from Barrhead, he was living in Lindsay House in the Village. A joiner by trade, he left school in Newton Mearns aged 15. After a five-year relationship with a woman who lives in the Scottish Borders broke down, he moved to East Kilbride in 2004 and fell into depression after difficulties gaining access to see his young children. A spokesman for the East Kilbride shopping centre said: “We can confirm that there was a serious incident at the shopping centre on Saturday afternoon. “As soon as security was alerted the emergency services were called and the police and ambulance service were quickly on the scene. Management at the centre are now offering every assistance to the police as they continue their investigations into this tragic event.”
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