Damned for eternity
..25 years after he got away with the murder of student Amanda Duffy, 19
Francis Auld is pictured looking frail and haunted days before he died a wretched death, riddled with cancer at the age of just 45
verdict when he was tried for murdering her.
Auld was later found to be responsible for Amanda’s death in a civil case raised against him by her grieving parents.
He passed away on Saturday aged 45, having been diagnosed in March, though news of his death was not officially confirmed until yesterday.
When initially approached by the Record on Sunday night, Amanda’s dad Joe said: “It makes no difference to me if he is dead or alive but we are obviously frustrated Auld never faced justice.”
After the official confirmation yesterday, Joe said: “We don’t have any comment to make until we seek advice on what can now be achieved.”
Auld spent his final weeks in an English hospice before losing his battle with the disease on Saturday morning.
The last pictures of frail Auld, taken just days before he died, highlight the dramatic weight loss he suffered as a result of his condition.
He was arrested after drama student Amanda’s body was found on waste ground in Hamilton in May 1992. She had been strangled and brutally beaten.
Auld admitted to police that a bite mark on the 19-year-old’s breast came from him but claimed it was a love bite.
He was sensationally cleared of her murder in the controversial verdict at the High Court in Glasgow. But in 1995, a judge in a civil case brought by Amanda’s parents, Joe and Kate, ruled the unemployed mechanic had killed her.
Last year, a bid to prosecute him for the murder of Amanda under new double jeopardy laws was turned down.
The case at the Appeal Court in Edinburgh was heard by Lady Dorrian, Lord Bracadale and Lord Carloway, Scotland’s most senior judge.
But they decided fresh evidence put forward by prosecutors did not satisfy rules
We have no comment to make until we seek advice on what can be achieved JOE DUFFY