JUSTICE AFTER 36 YEARS On the day we arrested him he actually stayed quite tight-lipped
Top cop reveals murderer was
AFTER a 36-year wait for justice, it took mere hours for a jury to deliver a verdict of guilty that will see Graham McGill face life in prison.
It will give some closure to Mary McLaughlin’s surviving children, who have searched nearly four decades to find out what happened to their mother.
The evening of September 26, 1984, began as many others had for 58-year-old Mary – she went out to a local pub to drink, socialise and play dominoes.
But by an awful twist of fate, the mum-of-11 would that night cross paths with the then-22-year-old McGill, out on five days release from HMP Edinburgh where he was being held for sex crimes.
McGill was taking part in a training for freedom programme, designed to rehabilitate him back into the community.
Mary, finishing up in the Hyndland Bar and heading home, walked to nearby Armando’s chip shop to buy some fritters to take back with her.
On the way, she met McGill, who walked beside her home.
It is not known whether McGill coerced Mary into allowing him access to her flat in Crathie Court, Partick, but she had been known for her sociable and trusting nature, and it was not unusual for her to invite people back.
Once there, McGill strangled Mary to her death as she lay on her bed, tying the cord of her dressing gown around her neck and tying it tight – twice.
He took her keys and left the flat, locking the door behind him.
It was only six days later – once McGill had returned to HMP Edinburgh, that Mary’s body was found by her son, Martin Cullen, and his then-partner.
At the time, said senior investigating officer Detective Superintendent Suzanne Chow, who headed up the new investigation into Mary’s death, a “large-scale investigation” was launched.
Witnesses reported seeing Mary walking back to her flat accompanied by a man – but this man was never traced.
Forensic science was in its infancy without the advanced DNA techniques available to police now.
It was thanks to the use of these scientific advances that McGill was finally traced.
Police Scotland and the Crown and Procurator Fiscal Service have a cold case team that meets to discussed unsolved murders.
Mary’s case had been looked at several times previously but this time the review of the case coincided with the launch of cutting edge DNA technology.
SPA Forensic Scientist Joanne Cochrane said: “I was allocated the unresolved case of Mary as part of the SPA forensic services cold case review team.
“It’s a small team of our more experienced scientists and we are asked to carry out a full, comprehensive review of unresolved cases.
“It’s our job to try to establish any forensic potential that remains within these cases and in the case of Mary McLaughlin there was quite
clearly to me a number of potential avenues that we could explore forensically using our new and improved searching techniques.”
In court, Joanne explained that, while Mary’s dressing gown cord had previously been examined, a knot in the material had never been opened.
This time, it was meticulously unknotted and fresh DNA was found inside.
Joanne added: “The review of this case coincided with the launch of our new DNA chemistries – DNA24 being our next generation DNA chemistries. The thing about our new chemistries is that they are incredibly sensitive. It was a significant upgrade from our previous DNA profiling kit.
“We knew it would give us better success with degraded DNA samples, older DNA samples, and trace amount of DNA samples so it’s really ideally suited to bring results from these cold cases, these cases that are often decades old.
“On reviewing these cases, typically what we’ll do is split it into phases. Phase one identify the items most likely to yield something evidentially significant.
“From phase one of this examination we did identify a male DNA profile on an item from the locus which was later found to match Graham McGill.”
At the time of the murder, McGill had been sentenced in 1981 to six years for assault with attempt to ravish and was released from prison in October 1984.
His release came shortly after his five-day spell out of prison where he opportunistically murdered Mary.
In court, his ex-wife, Suzanne Russell, said McGill had told her he committed the murder to “know what it felt like to kill someone”.
She told the High Court he then threatened to kill her if she ever told anyone of his confession.
McGill was also jailed for life in 1999 for another assault with intent to ravish and was out on licence from that when he was arrested and charged with murder on December 4, 2019.
He would not have expected officers to catch up with him for his earlier crime – and Suzanne said he was speechless when she and her colleagues arrested him.
She said: “On the day we arrested him he actually stayed quite tight-lipped.
“He didn’t speak to us, he didn’t make any comment at all.
“You could tell he was shellshocked.
“He certainly wouldn’t be expecting the police to be chapping his door that morning in November.”
McGill also stayed tight-lipped during the trial, choosing not to give evidence.
But Mary’s son Martin told the High Court in Glasgow of the trauma of finding his mother’s body.
The court was shown distressing footage of Mary’s body when it was found, and of the inside of her flat.
Another of Mary’s sons, Michael, died in February this year of cancer before having the chance to see McGill in court.
As Martin left the High Court yesterday he was asked “Justice?” and replied “Yes”.
He was then asked if he was relieved and he again replied: “Yes” before giving a thumbs up.
For Suzanne, there is a strong sense of pride that McGill has finally been forced to face up to his crime.
The officer added: “Obviously as a detective that’s what you are here to do, to seek justice for people’s families.
“It’s actually more personal when you are investigating a murder that happened 36 years ago because ultimately it’s someone’s mother, someone’s daughter, someone’s sister, a loved one, and they have spent 36 years not knowing what has happened to their mum.
“There’s 11 children there who don’t know what’s happened to their mum and some of them were quite young when that happened so I am hoping they will get some answers, they will get some justice.
“I have met with a couple of the family members and, as you can imagine, they are really traumatised.
“So at least we can give them some answers now. It gives us a great pride, and satisfaction in what we do and it’s for the families that we do it.
“He’s a convicted sex offender and a real danger to the public so I hope it gives justice to the family but also protects other women from harm.”