World's End killer Angus Sinclair died in prison yesterday – and the detective who helped snare him said he “certainly” killed three other women.
Tom Wood said Sinclair will go down in history as “one of the most dangerous men to ever walk the streets of Scotland”.
Referring to other possible victims, the former deputy chief constable of Lothian and Borders Police added: “Let’s spare a thought for Anna Kenny, Hilda McAuley and Agnes Cooney, who Sinclair certainly murdered.”
The killer was found dead in his cell at Glenochil prison yesterday morning. He is believed to have died from natural causes.
The Scottish Prison Service said: “Angus Robertson Sinclair, 73, a prisoner at HMP Glenochil, has died. He was convicted at Edinburgh High Court on August 31, 1982. The matter has been reported to the Procurator Fiscal. A fatal accident inquiry will be held in due course.”
Sinclair raped and murdered teenagers Christine Eadie and Helen Scott in 1977 after meeting them at the World’s End pub in Edinburgh.
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He was serving the longest sentence ever imposed in a Scottish court – 37 years.
But the man dubbed “one of the most evil” is suspected of carrying out many more killings.
Wood – who led Operation Trinity, which finally snared Sinclair – said the only regret at his death should be reserved for the secrets he is taking to his grave.
He said: “We should be thinking of these young women and their families, not wasting our thoughts on Angus Sinclair.”
Sinclair claimed his first victim in 1961, when he was just 16, by luring seven-year-old Catherine Reehill into his Glasgow house, where he raped and strangled her.
He then threw her body down the stairs and claimed her death had been an accident. He pled guilty to culpable homicide and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
In 1968, Sinclair was freed and put under supervision for three years.
He moved to Edinburgh, where he met his wife Sarah. They married in 1970 before the family moved back to Glasgow.
In 1977, he embarked on a killing spree in the capital, including Christine and Helen.
The girls, who were both 17, were raped and murdered after a night out in Edinburgh in October 1977.
Sinclair was sentenced to life in prison in 1982 for a series of sex attacks on 11 young victims aged between three and 14 in Glasgow.
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He was about to apply for parole when he was charged with killing 17-year-old Mary Gallacher, who had been sexually assaulted and her throat cut before her body was dumped on waste ground near a train station in Springburn, Glasgow, in 1978.
He receive his second life sentence in 2001 and in 2004, DNA evidence linked him to the infamous World’s End murders. Working alongside his brother-in-law Gordon Hamilton, the two men attacked the girls in Sinclair’s caravanette before being taken to East Lothian where they were tortured, strangled to death and their bodies dumped.
Despite the DNA evidence, he was acquitted when the judge ruled there was no case to answer.
Following the introduction of the Double Jeopardy (Scotland) Act in 2011, Sinclair was retried in 2014 and this time he was found guilty.
In 2017, he suffered a series of strokes and was confined to his bed or a wheelchair.
Hilda, 36, Agnes, 23 and Anna, 20, had been killed and dumped in similar circumstances within months of each other in Glasgow in 1977. All had been bound and gagged with items of their own clothing.
Sinclair was never tried for their murders as all the evidence had been lost.
Beast took secrets to his grave, says former detective Tom Wood
It is wrong to celebrate any man’s death but equally it is hard to mourn Angus Sinclair – other than for the secrets he takes to his grave.
Sinclair was imprisoned for 47 of his 59 years of adult life yet during his 12 years of freedom, he was convicted of the deaths of four young women, the rape and brutalisation of 10 children and was certainly responsible for the murders of three other young women.
By any measure, he was one of the most violent sexual predators to have disgraced Scotland.
By a dreadful coincidence, his murderous rampage coincided with that of Peter Tobin and Robert Black, who ensured that the 70s was the darkest decade in Scotland’s appalling history of violence against women.
I was one of hundreds of police officers who investigated Sinclair’s crimes over nearly 40 years and success, when it came, was not a result of brilliant deduction by a master detective – rather the painstaking work of decades of team effort.
Contrary to popular belief, there are no “great detectives”, only great team work. And the breakthrough was due to new science built on outstanding forensic work at the scenes of the deaths of two of the victims.
The Sinclair we met in 2004 was a small man, unremarkable, who you would have passed in the street without a second glance. There was no hint of menace.
So, as we close this dark chapter in Scotland’s history, let us not waste our thoughts on Angus Sinclair.
Instead, as we have recently celebrated International Women’s Day, let us spare a thought for his victims.
For little Catherine Reehill, only seven when she was murdered; for Helen Scott and Christine Eadie, just 17; or teenager Mary Gallacher, so petite she was often mistaken for a child. Let’s think of the 10 children sexually violated and whose lives are hideously marked. Let’s spare a thought for Anna Kenny, Hilda McAuley and Agnes Cooney – who Sinclair certainly murdered.
All these young women were at the start of their lives, young and full of promise. Who knows what potential was snuffed out by Angus Sinclair’s predatory lust.
We should be thinking of these young women and their families today. Not wasting our thoughts on Angus Sinclair.
● Tom Wood is author of The World’s End Murders: The Final Verdict.
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