11 Cast number of the teeth that convicted strangler Gordon Hay

LINDA Peacock, 15, went missing on August 6, 1967, after an evening out near her home in Biggar, Lanarkshire.

The teenager’s bloodied body was discovered in a local graveyard the next day. She had been hit over the head and strangled, though not raped.

Police called in forensic dental expert Dr Warren Harvey, who determined that a bite mark on her right breast had been inflicted by a uniquely malformed set of teeth. If the police could find someone with a matching set, they would also have found Linda’s killer.

Detectives focused on a nearby institution for young offenders, where 29 boys were asked to give dental impressions of their teeth. Each cast was given a number.

Dr Harvey whittled down the suspect to cast number 11. With its strangely pitted canines, a rare defect, it was a perfect fit to the marks found on Linda.

Cast number 11 belonged to 17-year-old Gordon Hay, pictured above. The bite mark evidence was the key to him being found guilty at the High Court in Edinburgh in February 1968.