Daily Record

MY BOY’S KILLER MUST DIE IN JAIL

PLEA ON LIMBS-IN-LOCH MONSTER Tragic Barry’s dad says Beggs should never be freed

- BY MARCELLO MEGA

THE father of limbs-in-the-loch murder victim Barry Wallace yesterday demanded that life means life for his son’s killer.

Evil William Beggs can apply for parole next year and Ian Wallace wants him to be kept in prison.

Ian said: “The world will be a safer place if Beggs dies behind bars.”

THE father of a teenager murdered and dismembere­d by limbs-in-the-loch killer William Beggs has urged Scottish Government ministers to ensure the monster will die in jail.

Ian Wallace’s son Barry was slain by twisted Beggs in December 1999.

The heartbroke­n dad knows Beggs can apply for parole at the end of 2019 after serving a minimum of 20 years behind bars.

After learning that an English police force felt they were losing their battle to persuade the Crown Prosecutio­n Service in England to prosecute the killer a second time for a murder he was cleared of on appeal, Ian has decided to speak out.

The 67-year-old, from Kilmarnock, said: “Almost 20 years ago, we lost our son Barry because of this monster.

“Barry was 18, a good lad and with all of his life ahead of him.

“Any parent who loses a child can never get over it and it’s especially hard to know that the nature of your child’s death was so brutal.

“We’ve always known that Beggs had killed before and had he still been locked up, instead of getting out on a technicali­ty, he would not have been free to kill Barry.

“If the justice system in England can’t do the right thing and prosecute him again for the murder of Barry Oldham, it’s up to the Scottish system to deliver justice for both his victims.”

Beggs fled the country after disposing of Barry Wallace’s body parts in a remote part of Loch Lomond and dumped his head in the Irish Sea.

However, he was eventually extradited from the Netherland­s after a lengthy legal process.

In 2001, Beggs went on trial over Barry’s murder. He was convicted and sentenced to life with a minimum of 20 years to serve, backdated from the time he handed himself in to Dutch police. He has since tried and failed to have his minimum sentence reduced on appeal.

Beggs had murdered Barry Oldham, 28, in 1987 after picking him up in a bar and having sex with him. He attacked Barry at his home, killed him and tried to dismember him before dumping his body in moorland in Yorkshire. Beggs was caught and convicted of the murder due to the fact Barry’s blood was found in his flat. But in 1989, Beggs saw his conviction quashed on a technicali­ty. The Appeal Court ruled the trial judge had been wrong to allow him to be prosecuted on the same indictment for a number of serious assaults on men that bore a resemblanc­e to his attack on Barry Oldham, saying it was prejudicia­l.

As the law stood, double jeopardy rules meant he could never be tried again. But years after the law changed, the CPS received a letter from Barry’s dad, Albert Oldham, asking them to consider a fresh prosecutio­n.

The cold case unit of North Yorkshire Police’s major crime team have reviewed the case periodical­ly and sources have confirmed the force would make every effort to persuade the CPS to mount a new case. However, a source has now conceded they do not believe the case will meet the high bar set by the CPS to consider prosecutin­g someone a second time for the same murder.

The source added: “The blood in Beggs’ flat was identified as Barry Oldham’s. Although DNA techniques now are much more advanced and would produce a far stronger statistica­l case, the profession­al judgment is that it will not be accepted as fresh evidence and that the CPS are unlikely to seek a new trial.”

But Tom Wood, the former deputy chief constable who led the investigat­ion that finally snared Angus Sinclair for the World’s End murders, said he believed the case was worth pursuing.

In 2007, 30 years after Helen Scott and Christine Eadie, both 17, were raped and murdered after leaving the World’s End pub in Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, Sinclair was tried for the murders.

But the Crown botched the case, denying the two grieving families justice.

Double jeopardy had already been scrapped in England and Wales and Sinclair’s acquittal by the trial judge, who ruled he had no case to answer, led to a clamour for Scotland to follow suit. Seven years after his acquittal,

Sinclair became the first man in Scotland to be tried for a second time for the same murders, and this time he was convicted.

Wood said: “Getting a second trial was a close-run thing, and Frank Mulholland, the then Lord Advocate, had to fight with all he could muster.

“The defence argued that the DNA evidence the Crown wished to present to the court was effectivel­y the same as what had been available in 2007. But the major difference was that in the intervenin­g years, Crime Lite had been invented – a device that literally shone new light on production­s in the case.

“The standard is that the evidence justifying the second prosecutio­n must be fresh or so compelling it cannot be ignored. The DNA evidence produced by Crime Lite was much more detailed than anything police had had before and was utterly compelling, with Sinclair’s DNA all over the ligatures that had strangled the girls and proving he had been involved in their violent deaths. Sinclair was rightly tried again and justice was done.

“I’m now long retired and out of touch with developmen­ts of the last few years but I know that already there are newer and better techniques.

“Ideally, we should never concede that a murder can’t be solved because the public need to have confidence in the justice system and its capability

to deliver justice, no matter how long has passed.”

Ian added: “Beggs got off on a technicali­ty for the murder of Barry Oldham, and that’s not justice.

“If you are guilty, you are guilty. If the evidence points only at you and a mistake is made, that doesn’t make you innocent. Evidence should be the key, and it should always be used to deliver justice.

“The world will be a safer place if Beggs dies behind bars.”

The murder of Barry Oldham remains among the North Yorkshire force’s cold cases under periodic review.

 ??  ?? VICTIM Barry Wallace was killed by Beggs, right
VICTIM Barry Wallace was killed by Beggs, right
 ??  ??
 ??  ?? BRAVERY Ian Wallace speaks to press in 2001
BRAVERY Ian Wallace speaks to press in 2001
 ??  ?? SEARCH Divers scour Loch Lomond, above. Sunday Mail reports find, right POLICE ESCORT Handcuffed Beggs during his trial in 2001 FAREWELL Ian Wallace, below, at son Barry’s funeral in Kilmarnock in 2000
SEARCH Divers scour Loch Lomond, above. Sunday Mail reports find, right POLICE ESCORT Handcuffed Beggs during his trial in 2001 FAREWELL Ian Wallace, below, at son Barry’s funeral in Kilmarnock in 2000
 ??  ??
 ??  ?? HANDSOME Barry Wallace with a female friend
HANDSOME Barry Wallace with a female friend

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