CRIMINOLOGIST
BY JANE HAMILTON Crime Reporter
A LEADING criminologist believes one of Scotland’s most legendary detectives “fitted up” an innocent man, which led to him spending 15 years in prison for a murder he “couldn’t” have committed.
And Professor David Wilson has made a plea for “true” justice after examining the case against George Beattie, who was 19 when he was jailed for stabbing typist Margaret McLaughlin, 23, in Carluke, Lanarkshire, in 1973.
David believes Detective Chief Superintendent William Muncie, famous for snaring serial killer Peter Manuel, had “tunnel vision” when it came to solving Margaret’s murder because he had a record to live up to.
David, who was born and brought up in Carluke, believes he’s identified the person responsible for the horrific murder, which has cast a shadow over the town for the past 46 years.
The academic, 63, has spent two years researching the case and claims he has uncovered the truth, which he sets out in a book that will be published later this week.
He also confronted the man, now in his 80s, about the murder.
In an exclusive interview with the Record, David said: “Once Muncie had Beattie in his sights he wasn’t prepared to let him go.
“Muncie believed he had psychic powers when it came to solving murders. He would decide which suspect was guilty and then search for the proof to make his case. Today we would call this ‘confirmation bias’ but his methods worked back then, when he solved more than 50 murders, including some very high-profile killings.
“Muncie was held back, he was engaged in a process where he has to demonstrate this psychic power, and he ignored all the evidence that would cast doubt Beattie was the killer.”
Muncie’s men had found a knife close to where Margaret’s body lay. Forensic testing showed there were no traces of Margaret’s or Beattie’s blood on it and that it was unlikely to have been the murder weapon. It was rusty and old.
David added: “This information didn’t appear to make it to the officers interviewing Beattie so the investigation proceeded in the belief that the knife was the murder weapon. This was the special knowledge that could only have been known by the killer, they said at the trial.
“Beattie was a man who told tall tales. He was well-known for it. To understand how easy it was for him to be fitted up is to understand the kind of man he was. “It was generally accepted he had a lower than average IQ and had been held back at school for a couple of years. To most people in the town he was a ‘big softie, harmless’. “He was eager to please, he avoided conflict. By the time he was interviewed and charged, a lot of information had already been in the public domain. “He liked to insert himself into stories and this was helped by detectives feeding him information in their interviews with him. I looked into the circumstances, the interviews, the withheld evidence,