The World's End pub, from which the case gets its name
The World's End Murders is the colloquial name given to the murder of two girls, Christine Eadie, 17, and Helen Scott, 17, in Edinburgh, in October 1977. The case is so named because both victims were last seen alive leaving The World's End pub in Edinburgh's Old Town. The only person to stand trial accused of the murders, Angus Robertson Sinclair,[1] was acquitted in 2007 in controversial circumstances. Following the amendment of the law of double jeopardy, which would have prevented his retrial, Sinclair was retried in October 2014 and convicted of both murders on 14 November 2014. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 37 years, the longest sentence by a Scottish court, meaning he would have been 106 years old when he was eligible for a potential release on parole.[2] He died at HM Prison Glenochil aged 73 on 11 March 2019.[3] Coincidentally, he died on the same day the BBC's Crimewatch Roadshow programme profiled the murders.
In addition to the murders of Eadie and Scott, Sinclair also pleaded guilty to the culpable homicide of his eight-year-old neighbour Catherine Reehill in Glasgow in 1961 when he was 16,[4] and was given another life sentence in 2001 for the murder of 17-year-old Mary Gallacher on a footpath in Glasgow in 1978.[5] He is believed to have also killed four other women between 1977 and 1978, all within a seven-month period of the murders of Eadie and Scott.[6]
Background
On the night of 15 October 1977, Christine Eadie and Helen Scott, both seventeen, were seen leaving The World's End pub, located at High Street on the Royal Mile, at closing time. The following day, Eadie's naked body was discovered in Gosford Bay, East Lothian, by hill walkers. Scott's body was found unclothed six miles away from Eadie's, in a corn-stubble field.[7] Both girls had been beaten, gagged, tied up, raped and strangled. No attempt had been made to conceal their bodies.[8]
In late 1977, Lothian and Borders Police conducted a high-profile criminal investigation, collating a list of over 500 suspects and taking over 13,000 statements from members of the public.[9] Despite their efforts, they were unable to identify a culprit. The case commanded widespread attention in the Scottish media at the time, and a photo-booth picture of the two girls was used by police in their appeals for information.
At the time, the media reported that several witnesses had told police they had seen Helen Scott and Christine Eadie sitting near the public telephone in the bar, talking with two men. Neither of these men were traced or have presented themselves to police. Speculation that the killings had been the work of two men was heightened when it was revealed that the knots used to tie the girls' hands behind their backs were of different types.[10]
In May 1978, Lothian and Borders Police announced that they were scaling down the investigation.[11]
Cold case review
In 1997, Lothian and Borders Police's cold case unit instructed further forensic work to be undertaken in the case, reflecting improvements in DNA profiling technology since the murders occurred.[12] This resulted in the isolation of a DNA profile of a male, found on both girls. The DNA of the original 500 suspects was analysed and compared to the new sample, but there was no match.
On 8 October 2003, following the broadcast of a reconstruction on the BBC's Crimewatch programme, the incident team at Lothian and Borders Police received a phone call from a man who claimed he was walking near Gosford Bay on the night of the murders, and that he saw a suspicious vehicle. He said it was a works van and it was being driven erratically. The man did not come forward with this information during the initial investigation. It was revealed that immediately following the Crimewatch broadcast in 2003, police had received 130 calls from witnesses who had not previously made themselves known to the investigation.[13]
On 15 October 2003, it was reported in the press that Lothian and Borders Police had enlisted the help of the Forensic Science Service (FSS) to try to determine the identity of the person whom the unknown DNA sample belonged to. The unknown sample partially matched over 200 profiles in the National DNA Database.[14]
On 25 November 2004, Angus Robertson Sinclair (7 June 1945[15] – 11 March 2019), a man who lived in Edinburgh at the time of the murders, was detained under section 14 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 in connection with the murders. Mouth swabs were taken for analysis.[16]
On 31 March 2005, Sinclair was arrested and charged by Lothian and Borders Police.[16] On 1 April 2005, he appeared on petition, in private at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, charged with the murder and rape of the two girls in October 1977. He made no plea or declaration at this time and was remanded in custody.[17]
On 27 August 2007, the trial of Angus Sinclair got under way in Court 3 at the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh. The presiding judge was Lord Clarke. The prosecution was led by advocate depute Alan Mackay, and the defence by Edgar Prais, QC.
The indictment alleged that on the night of 15–16 October 1977, Sinclair and Gordon Hamilton (Sinclair's brother-in-law who had since died) persuaded or forced the girls into a motor vehicle and held them against their will, in St Mary's Street, near The World's End pub. It was alleged that he then drove Christine Eadie to Gosford Bay, Aberlady, and there or elsewhere attacked, stripped and gagged her with her underwear, and tied her wrists, before raping her and then killing her by restricting her breathing. He was further accused of raping and murdering Scott in the same way and driving her to a road near Haddington, and in a field there or elsewhere in Edinburgh and East Lothian attacking her.[18]
Sinclair pleaded not guilty to rape and murder.[16] At the commencement of the trial date Sinclair lodged two special defences, one of consent and one of incrimination, stating that any sexual activity between him and the two girls had been consensual, and that if they had come to any harm, the person responsible was Gordon Hamilton.
The jury of nine women and six men began hearing evidence on 28 August 2007.[19] No eyewitness evidence was led; the Crown case was wholly circumstantial.
On 3 September 2007, the advocate depute led evidence from Detective Constable Carol Craig, who noted that Angus Sinclair owned a Toyota Hiace caravanette at the time of the murders, that he had since destroyed. As a result, she confirmed that police were unable to carry out forensic tests on any of the fabrics or seat upholstery inside the vehicle.[18]
On 4 September 2007, a forensic scientist, Martin Fairley, gave evidence that semen obtained from a vaginal swab of Eadie, and semen obtained from a vaginal swab of Scott shared the same DNA profile.[16]
On 7 September 2007, another forensic scientist, Jonathan Whitaker, gave evidence that semen matching swabs taken from Angus Sinclair was found mixed with cells with the same DNA profile as Helen Scott, on a coat belonging to Helen Scott. He also told the court how brothers and sisters of Sinclair's dead brother-in-law, Gordon Hamilton, had provided samples for DNA testing, and that the results of these tests had been compared with the semen found in the bodies of the victims. He explained that the results obtained are what he would expect, if semen found in the victims had come from a brother of the surviving Hamiltons. Whitaker was the final witness in the Crown case.[20]
No case to answer submission
On the afternoon of 7 September 2007, senior counsel for the defence, Edgar Prais, QC, made a submission under section 97 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, that Sinclair had no case to answer in respect of the charges libelled, due to an insufficiency of evidence. In particular, he contended that the Crown had failed to lead evidence that Angus Sinclair had been involved in acting with force or violence against the girls, and that the advocate depute had not led evidence to prove that any sexual encounter between the panel and the girls had not been consensual.[21]
On 10 September 2007, following legal arguments on the matter, the trial judge Lord Clarke upheld the defence submission of no case to answer, and formally acquitted Sinclair before putting it to the jury.[22]
Aftermath
Following the conclusion of the trial it was revealed that Angus Sinclair was already a convicted murderer and serial sex offender, and was serving two life sentences at HMP Peterhead when his case was brought forward in the World's End Murders.[5] It was also revealed that Sinclair had previously completed a prison sentence for culpable homicide.[4]
Sinclair's first conviction occurred in 1961, at age 16, when he pleaded guilty and was convicted of the culpable homicide of eight-year-old Catherine Reehill and served six years in prison. Sinclair sexually assaulted and strangled her in his family home.[4] In 1982, five years after the World's End Murders, he pleaded guilty to 11 of 13 charges libelling various rapes and indecent assaults committed against young girls, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. In June 2001, still in prison, he went to trial and was given another life sentence for the murder of 17-year-old Mary Gallacher on a footpath near the Barnhill railway station in Glasgow in November 1978, thirteen months after the World's End Murders. The teenager had been dragged into bushes, sexually assaulted, had her throat cut and a ligature tied around her neck.[5] Again Sinclair failed to accept any responsibility for the crime and denied all knowledge, despite being found guilty by a majority verdict and faced with the reality that the chances of a DNA sample matching anyone other than Sinclair, were "a billion to one."[23] Sinclair was only caught, for the 1978 murder, after a cold case review by Strathclyde Police revealed the presence of new DNA evidence not uncovered during the initial investigation.[24]
News of the verdict drew widespread comment and criticism in the Scottish press. Such was the level of public and media interest in the outcome of the case, on 13 September 2007 the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament took the unusual step of allowing the then Lord Advocate, Elish Angiolini, to address the Scottish Parliament on the matter. The Lord Advocate read a prepared statement to the chamber setting out the narrative of the Crown case and explaining her reasoning for deciding to prosecute. She is recorded in the official transcript of her address as saying that she was "disappointed" with the result, and that she "was of the clear opinion that the evidence that was made available to the court was sufficient to put before the jury to allow it the opportunity to decide on the case against Sinclair".[25]
In response, on 26 September 2007, the then Lord Justice General, Lord Hamilton, took the unprecedented move of publicly criticising the Lord Advocate's decision to address the Scottish Parliament on the case. In an open letter, Lord Hamilton wrote, "the plain implication from your statements is that you were publicly asserting that the decision of the trial judge was wrong" and explained that her actions could be seen to "undermine public confidence in the judiciary".[26]
In the following weeks several eminent former Scottish judges became involved in the debate. On 28 September 2007, former Solicitor General and retired Senator of the College of Justice, Lord McCluskey, gave an interview to The Herald stating that he believed Lord Hamilton had no grounds to accuse Elish Angiolini of threatening the independence of the judiciary. He is quoted as saying, "He's quite wrong. What he fails to see is that it is sometimes essential for a minister to comment upon a case. It happens all the time in parliament".
Another retired Senator of the College of Justice, Lord Coulsfield, gave an interview on BBC Scotland's Sunday Live programme, stating that "The real issue here is whether a decision of the magnitude that Lord Clarke had to take should always be taken by a single judge".[27]
Legal consequences
The furore surrounding the outcome of the case led to a far-reaching and systematic review of Scottish criminal procedure. On 20 November 2007, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Kenny MacAskill, MSP, referred several issues arising out of HMA v Sinclair to the Scottish Law Commission for investigation.[28]
On 22 March 2011, in direct response to the Scottish Law Commission's findings on the issue of double jeopardy, the Scottish Parliament passed the Double Jeopardy (Scotland) Act 2011. The act makes various provisions for circumstances when a person convicted or acquitted of an offence can be prosecuted anew.[32]
On 14 March 2012, the Crown Office issued a press statement saying that the Procurator Fiscal had instructed Lothian and Borders Police to re-open the investigation into the murders of Christine Eadie and Helen Scott, following the introduction of the Double Jeopardy (Scotland) Act 2011.[33]
Three judges set aside eight days of court time in October 2013 to hear a bid from prosecutors pressing for Sinclair to stand trial for the second time.[34] On 15 April 2014, the Crown was granted permission to bring a new prosecution against Angus Sinclair.[35]
The trial commenced on 13 October 2014 at the High Court of Justiciary sitting in Livingston, West Lothian. The prosecutor was Frank Mulholland, the Lord Advocate, and the judge was Lord Matthews.[36] At one stage the jury visited the scene of the murders in East Lothian. Forensic soil specialist, professor Lorna Dawson examined soil samples taken in 1977 from Helen Scott's bare feet, which was pertinent to the evidence.[37] On 14 November 2014, Sinclair was found guilty of the murders of Helen Scott and Christine Eadie on 15 October 1977.[38] Following the conviction, Lord Matthews sentenced Sinclair to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 37 years. This means he would have been 106 years old before being considered for parole. He died in prison in March 2019.[39]
See also
Chris Clark (writer), author of Gone Fishing: The Unsolved Crimes of Angus Sinclair, a 2021 book alleging links between Sinclair and a number of unsolved murders
Murder of Sheila Anderson, another infamous Edinburgh murder, in 1983, which has similarly been described as one of Scotland's most notorious unsolved murders
Related Research Articles
In jurisprudence, double jeopardy is a procedural defence that prevents an accused person from being tried again on the same charges following an acquittal or conviction and in rare cases prosecutorial and/or judge misconduct in the same jurisdiction. Double jeopardy is a common concept in criminal law - in civil law, a similar concept is that of res judicata. The double jeopardy protection in criminal prosecutions only bars an identical prosecution for the same offence, however, a different offence may be charged on identical evidence at a second trial. Res judicata protection is stronger - it precludes any causes of action or claims that arise from a previously litigated subject matter.
Stephen Lawrence was a black British teenager from Plumstead, southeast London, who was murdered in a racially motivated attack while waiting for a bus in Well Hall Road, Eltham on the evening of 22April 1993, when he was 18 years old. The case became a cause célèbre: its fallout included changes of attitudes on racism and the police, and to the law and police practice. It also led to the partial revocation of the rule against double jeopardy. Two of the perpetrators were convicted of murder on 3January 2012.
Thomas Sheridan is a Scottish politician who served as convenor of Solidarity from 2019 to 2021. He previously served as convenor of the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) from 1998 to 2004 and as co-convenor of Solidarity from 2006 to 2016. He was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Glasgow region from 1999 to 2007.
North Berwick is a seaside town and former royal burgh in East Lothian, Scotland. It is situated on the south shore of the Firth of Forth, approximately 20 miles (32 km) east-northeast of Edinburgh. North Berwick became a fashionable holiday resort in the nineteenth century because of its two sandy bays, the East Bay and the West Bay, and continues to attract holidaymakers. Golf courses at the ends of each bay are open to visitors.
The murder of Jodi Jones is a Scottish murder case from June 2003 in which a 14-year-old schoolgirl was murdered in woodland in Dalkeith, Scotland by her 14-year-old boyfriend Luke Mitchell. She was found murdered with a knife behind a wall on a path where she would invariably meet her boyfriend, having set out to meet him that afternoon.
Sheridan v News Group Newspapers is a civil court case brought by Tommy Sheridan against the publishers of the News of the World, which began in the Court of Session in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 4 July 2006. He alleged that the News of the World defamed his character through a series of articles in their publication.
The 2011 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday, 5 May 2011 to elect 129 members to the Scottish Parliament.
Francis Mulholland, Lord Mulholland, is a Scottish judge who has been a Senator of the College of Justice since 2016. He previously served from 2011 to 2016 as Lord Advocate, one of the Great Officers of State of Scotland and the country's chief Law Officer, and as Solicitor General, the junior Law Officer.
Arlene Fraser was a 33-year-old woman from Elgin in Moray, Scotland, who vanished from her home on 28 April 1998 after her two children went to school. No trace of her was ever found, but her husband was convicted of her murder, upheld on appeal.
Hugh Matthews, Lord Matthews is a Senator of the College of Justice, a judge of Scotland's Supreme Courts.
Peter Britton Tobin was a Scottish convicted serial killer and sex offender who served a whole life order at HM Prison Edinburgh for three murders committed between 1991 and 2006. Police also investigated Tobin over the deaths and disappearances of other young women and girls.
Her Majesty's Advocate v Thomas Sheridan and Gail Sheridan was the 2010 criminal prosecution of Tommy Sheridan, a former Member of the Scottish Parliament and his wife Gail Sheridan for perjury in relation to an earlier civil case called Sheridan v News Group Newspapers. Tommy Sheridan was found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison, whereas Gail was acquitted.
Jim Eadie is a Scottish politician who was the Scottish National Party (SNP) Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Edinburgh Southern constituency 2011–16. In 2021, he left the SNP and joined the Alba Party.
Events from the year 2012 in Scotland.
Suzanne Pilley was a 38-year-old British bookkeeper from Edinburgh, Scotland, who went missing on the morning of 4 May 2010. Following a highly publicised appeal for information on her whereabouts and intensive police enquiries, her former lover, David Gilroy, was arrested and charged with her murder. He was found guilty by majority verdict on 15 March 2012 and sentenced to life imprisonment. The judge ordered him to serve a minimum of 18 years in prison. The case is controversial because the prosecution obtained a murder conviction without a body. The body of Suzanne Pilley has never been found.
Events from the year 1977 in Scotland.
The Double Jeopardy (Scotland) Act 2011 is an Act of the Scottish Parliament which received Royal Assent on 27 April 2011. and came into force on 28 November 2011. The Act creates a statutory basis for the rule against trying a person twice for the same crime. The Act also creates three narrow exceptions to this rule.
Lorna Anne Dawson CBE FRSE is professor and head of soil forensics at the James Hutton Institute, Scotland, who is an Expert witness, Chartered Scientist, and registered expert with the National Crime Agency. She won the award of Soil Forensic Expert Witness of the Year in the Corporate INTL 2021 Global Awards for her forensic research solving major criminal cases, including the World's End pub murders. She had won a special Pride of Britain Award by The Daily Mirror in 2017, for her role in solving long standing criminal cases, and her science communications. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, with international academic recognition.
Chris Clark is a British amateur crime writer who writes chiefly about serial killers and their supposed links to unsolved crimes. He is a retired police intelligence officer who worked in the King's Lynn area for Norfolk Police, although his career was somewhat unsuccessful and he had three applications to join the new National Criminal Intelligence Service rejected in 1993, with the commanding officers unimpressed by his record and applications. In 2022, his book Yorkshire Ripper: The Secret Murders, which was jointly written with journalist Tim Tate and alleged links between Peter Sutcliffe and unsolved murders, was made into an ITV prime-time documentary series of the same name.
The murder of Elizabeth McCabe was the infamous murder of a 20-year-old woman in Dundee, Scotland in February 1980. The case is one of Scotland's most notorious unsolved murders, and led to one of Scotland's largest manhunts. McCabe had disappeared after a night out at Teazer's Disco in Dundee city centre, and was found strangled to death two weeks later in Templeton Woods on the outskirts of the city. This was only 11 months after another woman, 18-year-old Carol Lannen, had been found dead only 150 yards away in the same woods, leading to the killings being labelled the Templeton Woods murders in the press and causing many to fear that there was a serial killer at large in the city at the time, although police have not linked the murders.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
