They were barely out of childhood when they were cruelly bludgeoned to death.

But in the 20 years before their lives ended in the most violent of circumstances, Jahmil Daclay Cooper and Jahmal Deshawn Cooper already had a string of criminal convictions against their names.

During their time hanging around Hamilton?s crime-ridden ?back of town?, Burgess? defence team claimed they had made an even longer list of enemies.

Yet even the hardest heart must concede that the horrific way the brothers? troubled lives ended ? beaten to death with a baseball bat in a dingy basement flat, before being dumped down a remote cliff ? was no way for any human to die.

The reason why some branded the twins trouble is supported by one glance at offences they committed before they were killed.

Their records confirm Jahmal appeared in court nine times for a range of offences between 2002 and 2004. These included assaulting a Police officer, carrying a samurai sword, cocaine possession and unlawful wounding. He was given a three-month jail term in March 2004 ? one year before he died ? for arming himself with the sword in Pembroke Parish.archives show, however, that he used to have an interest in something other than crime. As a ten-year-old at East End Primary, Jahmal won a primary schools? Cup Match quiz in 1995.

Jahmil, who had a permanent scar after being attacked with a machete aged 19, appeared in court three times between 1997 and 2002. One of those was for attacking a Police officer. Another was for supplying cannabis in Pembroke Parish ? at the mere age of 12.

Two years later, in July 1999, Jahmil went missing from a secure residential facility and Police issued a plea for information in the media, suggesting the teenager?s family life was far from stable.

Their four-week murder trial has shone a light onto Hamilton?s backstreets where violence, drugs, and gambling came with the territory.

It heard how Jamhal and Jahmil were frequent visitors to Kenneth Burgess? gambling den on Elliott Street, although the defendant denied he was their friend and said they rarely gambled.

The trial heard the brothers hung around the Court Street area nearly every day. Firm fixtures in the ?back of town?, they dressed similarly but jewellery and tattoos meant they could be told apart. Jahmal wore two diamond rings while Jahmil wore earrings. And Jahmal had ?twin? tattooed on his back, a panther on his inner arm and ?street? on one outer forearm and ?thuggin? on the other.

During an emotional appearance as a witness in the trial, Ms Cooper clashed with Courtenay Griffiths QC, for Burgess.

She said she did not have trouble controlling the twins? behaviour from their early teens and staunchly defended the names of her sons.

Their friend Gladwyn Cann, who the court heard was a member of the White Wall Crew gang along with fellow eyewitness Devario Whitter and the Cooper brothers, denied a claim put to him by Burgess? defence team that the Cooper brothers were gangsters who ?terrorised the city?.

But even with her sons? troubled lives taken into account, Ms Cooper could never have predicted the grim phone call she would receive on April 13, 2005; the day Police ended a month of uncertainty and told her that skeletal remains had been discovered on a remote cliff face.