Killer gets extra time on jail term

A killer has been allowed out of prison at least 15 times while serving a life sentence for the knife murder of a pensioner.

Thomas Waldie has repeatedly been granted home leave despite also stabbing his twin brother in a row over a Mars Bar during one absence from prison.

In 2017, Waldie was given permission to leave Castle Huntly prison for several days at a time on at least nine occasions.

Waldie, 51, was back in the dock yesterday after he admitted bringing in a banned SIM card from a prison work party outside Castle Huntly on December 18 last year.

He claimed he had found the SIM card in the G4S van which had transported him back from the work placement.

Depute fiscal Tina Dickie told Perth Sheriff Court: “The accused was searched and prison officers found a micro SIM card in his jeans pocket. He told prison officers he had found it on the floor of the G4S bus.”

Waldie’s solicitor told the court it had been an “act of stupidity” because his client had only been a matter of weeks away from being released from his life sentence. He was jailed for two months yesterday.

Waldie was jailed for life in 1987 for murdering a pensioner in Edinburgh. A short time after first being released on licence he attacked his brother at a house in Kirkcaldy.