Beast took secrets to his grave
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.