THE death of a man who claimed he was wrongly convicted of a murder committed by serial killer Angus Sinclair is to be probed by a sheriff.

Thomas Young was jailed for the 1977 murder of 37-year-old Frances Barker - who was found in woodland after being battered and strangled.

Young was never released from prison after the killing - which he always denied - and he eventually became Scotland's longest serving inmate.

He died in July last year, aged 79, at Clackmannanshire Community Healthcare Centre in Alloa. He was an inmate at nearby HMP Glenochil at the time.

A fatal accident inquiry into the circumstances of his death is to be held next month.

Young's appeal against his conviction continued after his death but three judges finally rejected it in October last year.

But his lawyer John McLeod has said he plans to take the case to the Supreme Court over claims World's End killer Sinclair was responsible.

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 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.

He was also found guilty of two attempted murders, two rapes, assault, robbery and theft, but always protested his innocence.

Sinclair was convicted and given a 37-year sentence last year for the murders of 17-year-olds Helen Scott and Christine Eadie after a night out at the World's End pub on Edinburgh's Royal Mile in 1977.

Sinclair was the first person to be tried under new legislation which brought an end to the centuries-old double jeopardy rule preventing the same person facing trial on the same charges twice. He had been cleared of the crimes in 2007.

After the collapse of the initial trial, Mark Safarki, an FBI criminal profiler, examined a series of murders and concluded that Miss Barker and three other women were killed by Sinclair.

Mr Safarik took the view that there were features linking a number of cases, including Miss Barker's murder. Young was in prison when some of the later killings occurred.

Young's appeal was referred by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission to the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh but his case was thrown out in October.