‘If you’d have left him to the cops, he’d be dead now’

Former police inspector Jim Melville said his fellow officers were so enraged they could have killed Robert Mone as he was handcuffed and brought into custody in St John’s RC High School.

The retired officer said he “never felt afraid” of the killer as he entered the classroom to arrest the soldier following Mrs Hanson’s death.

As Mr Melville helped to march the killer down the corridor outside the classroom, officers threw punches and kicked the handcuffed Mone.

The inspector, who was taking him to a police van, said: “I got a few smacks in the face going down that corridor with him.

“As I was helping to carry him down the corridor there were plenty of cops who wanted to have a shot at him, who wanted to punch him, kick him.

“If you’d left him to the cops, he’d have been dead now. They would have murdered him, you know.”

Mr Melville added: “We took him out down through the corridor, lined with cops, into the car and down to headquarters.

“He never said a word. He was peaceful, very calm.”

While Mr Melville will always believe the order should have been given to allow the sniper to take out Mone, he said there was little else the force could have done differently in their handling of the incident.

He added: “As long as he had the girls in the classroom, he was the king. “He was in possession.”

Mr Melville also recalled the last time he came face-to-face with Mone, in the CID office the morning after the shooting.

He said: “We used to have to fill in forms for the prisoners. We would bring them from the cells up to the CID office to fill out their forms.

“The next day, at 8am, he sat opposite me and drew coffins on the piece of paper, never said a word.

“Cool, calm and collected, he didn’t seem to be bothered at all.”