A MAN has gone on trial accused of killing two teenagers last seen leaving the World's End pub in Edinburgh's Royal Mile in 1977.
Angus Sinclair yesterday pleaded not guilty to assaulting, raping and murdering Christine Eadie and Helen Scott, both 17.
The 69-year-old and his brother-in-law Gordon Hamilton, who has since died, are alleged to have repeatedly punched and kicked the two women on their heads and bodies, gagged them, forced them to have sex and then strangled them.
Appearing at the High Court in Livingston, West Lothian, Sinclair submitted three special defences of consent, alibi and incrimination.
Sinclair, according to defence submissions, was fishing on the banks of the River Forth somewhere near Cockenzie power station when the two girls were killed between October 15 and October 16, 1977.
His lawyers will argue that he had consensual sex with both Ms Eadie and Ms Scott but that the two women were murdered by Hamilton, of Glasgow.
A jury of nine women and six men were yesterday shown what Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland, prosecuting, warned were "distressing and upsetting" photographs of the injured bodies of Ms Eadie and Ms Scott, both in the mortuary before their post-mortem examinations and as they lay where they were found in East Lothian.
Ms Eadie was discovered with a bra tied around her neck at Gosford Sands, close to the A198.
Ms Scott's body was found in a field near Haddington, between Coates and Huntingdon, six miles away from Gosford Sands. She was wearing a raincoat, her hands tied behind her back.
Alistair Calderwood, a former police photographer, was on the witness stand as the jury was presented with the images.
Mr Calderwood agreed that a ligature, made from a belt and a pair of tights, was shown near Ms Scott's body in original images from the scene.
The jury was also shown pictures of ligatures used to tie the girls' wrists, their clothing and swabs and hair samples taken from their bodies.
Earlier they had seen black and white photographs taken of the World's End pub shortly after the young women were killed. One image captured a police information poster about the two women.
Mr Mulholland had opened his case by questioning a retired Police Scotland data expert, Thomas Gravesen, who had prepared maps showing both the pub and its Edinburgh neighbourhood and the two deposition sites in East Lothian.
Defending, Iain Duguid QC, confirmed that the maps were new and showed the areas as they are now, not when the crimes took place.
Sinclair is also accused of stealing clothing, footwear and personal effects of both women in an attempt to pervert the course of justice, which he also denies.
Judge Lord Matthews said the trial is expected to last two to three weeks.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article