Scottish lawyer convicted of using dark web to arrange murder of prosecutor

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Not sure how exactly this guy thought he wasn’t going to get nabbed for this:

A former lawyer using the name of a fictional vigilante has been convicted of attempting to hire a hitman on the dark web to kill a prosecutor.

Martin Ready accessed a website called the ‘Online Killers Market’ in an bid to have procurator fiscal Darren Harty killed in a ‘gangland-style execution’.

(As an aside, “Online Killers Market” is a little too on-the-nose, right? Who named that website?)

Mr. Ready attempted to cop an insanity plea out of his conviction, but the jury “dismissed his claims that he lacked criminal responsibility and found him guilty of attempted conspiracy to murder.”

So what was the reason for the attempted hit?

Ready, a former commercial contracts solicitor, had claimed the bar run by Mr Harty’s family in Coatbridge was being used to launder money for criminals.

To be honest, I’m not sure how the jury determined he wasn’t insane, given how self-evidently crazy the guy appeared to be:

He said his mother, a social worker, had been blackmailed for information by criminals in North Lanarkshire.

He also claimed he had been targeted by an attempted abduction and ‘insect infestation’ at his home.