In 1997 it was decided to review Mary Gallacher's unsolved murder using the latest in forensic technology.
IT was November 20, 1978, and tiny Mary Gallacher was looking forward to spending the evening with her best pal.
A grieving Catherine would later recall: “Mary kissed us all goodbye, borrowed my new handbag and told me not to worry as she wouldn’t be late. Mary looked a picture. She always had such a happy smile.” Despite interviewing hundreds of men, detectives made little progress and after a few months, the investigation was wound up with only a few officers remaining to follow up any new leads.However, in 1997 it was decided to review Mary’s unsolved murder using the latest in forensic technology including DNA. It was then, for the first time, that a prime suspect emerged.
Barry McGonigal, 34, quickly picked out Sinclair in the dock as the man he had seen that night when he was just 14.“I was terrified the man with the staring eyes would come and get me. It has destroyed my life.” Sinclair, with greying hair and wearing gold-rim spectacles, sat impassively and stared only at judge Lord Carloway.was a callous, brutal and depraved act on a young girl for which there is only one sentence which I am allowed to pass in law, and that is one of imprisonment for life.”
A medical report at the time concluded: “Sinclair is obsessed by sex and given the minimum of opportunity, he will repeat the offence.” The High Court in Edinburgh was told that psychiatrists believed Sinclair was too dangerous to be released. One said the only answer was a course of chemical castration to depress his sex drive.He continued: “I have considered very carefully whether a limit should be placed on the extent of that penalty and I have decided there is only one limit – namely your life – and you will be imprisoned for life.”sentenced to life to be told he would never go free.
Police suspected he may have gone on an earlier killing spree between August and December 1977, murdering at least five women. His suspected victims were Anna Kenny, 20, Hilda McAuley, 36, Agnes Cooney, 23, and two 17-year-old pals Helen Scott and Christine Eadie.Five women were found in countryside having been bound and gagged. All had gone missing after a night out at a dance hall or a pub and all had died a violent death.
However, linking him to the murders of Agnes, Hilda and Anna proved more problematic as there wasn’t enough evidence to take the case to trial.
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