Was an innocent man convicted of Sinclair murder?
THE lawyer of a prisoner who died in jail is preparing to go to the UK’s highest court to prove he was wrongfully convicted of an Angus Sinclair murder.
John McLeod is planning to take the case of Thomas Young to the Supreme Court in Lon- don, 37 years after his client was jailed for the murder of Frances Barker.
Young was never released from prison after the 1977 killing – which he always denied – and he eventually became Scotland’s longest serving inmate. He died in July, aged 79.
Earlier this year, three Scottish judges finally rejected an appeal which was first launched in 2007.
But Mr McLeod believes ‘issues of wider public importance’ are raised by the case which merit an approach to the Supreme Court.
He said Frances Barker was the first in a series of six murders which many investigators now believe were committed by the same person. But that person could not be Young, who was in custody by the time the second murder was committed.
Miss Barker, 37, is thought to have been abducted near her home in Glasgow’s Maryhill Road – only 40 yards from Sinclair’s home at the time.
Her battered and strangled body was later discovered in a wood in Glenboig, Lanarkshire. She had been raped, her pants had been forced into her mouth as a gag and a ligature had been tied around her neck.
Lorry driver Young was convicted and sentenced to life, with a recommendation he serve at least 30 years.
Miss Barker’s sister-in-law Angela Barker said she was shocked by the suggestion Young may not be the killer, adding: ‘It’s terrible if that is true. Everyone just accepted that he had done it. There was no DNA evidence in those days, but you trusted what the police said.
‘They found evidence in his house. There had been a little make-up sample that Frances had got from Daly’s, it had been given to her by someone she knew working at one of the make-up counters. Not many people used the counters in those days, so they knew it was hers.’
Mr McLeod said his client had always claimed that any items belonging to Miss Barker which were found in his possession had been planted.