RAW emotion spurting on to the streets of Glasgow as citizens strain against a line of police officers to publicly express their anger and disgust at a child-killer arriving at Glasgow Sheriff Court.
It was nearly 40 years ago, but that doesn’t diminish the sadness surrounding the case of little 10-year-old Andrea Hedger who was abducted and killed in April, 1978, while she walked to primary school in Glasgow’s Woodside.
The city was appalled that the simple act of going to school was no longer safe for a little girl, and hundreds of people lined the streets when her funeral cortege passed by.
A 19-year-old drifter, Robert Tervet, was living rough in the area, and he fled to Stockport where he was later picked up by police from Glasgow. His alibi for the day she died fell to pieces and he later pleaded guilty to her murder at the Sheriff Court where he is arriving by police van in this picture.
He was later sentenced to life at the High Court, and The Herald’s trusted Crime Correspondent Charlie Gillies reported that Tervet was being kept in solitary confinement, afraid even to take his allotted half-hour of exercise daily as he feared attacks from fellow prisoners.
Such scenes of infuriated mobs are now rarer, partly because courts have been redesigned so that prisoners are taken by van into the bowels of the buildings without meeting the public.
Why are you making commenting on HeraldScotland 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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel