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Angus Robertson Sinclair, AKA The World's End Killer, (1945 - 11 March 2019) was a Scottish serial killer and child molester responsible for the infamous World's End murders - the double rape and murder of Christine Eadie and Helen Scott near the World's End pub in Edinburgh in 1977. The case went unsolved for 37 years, during which time Sinclair was tried and acquitted. He was re-tried in 2014 after the retention of double jeopardy laws and convicted. In addition to the World's End murders, Sinclair was convicted of the murders of Catherine Reehill and Mary Gallacher and is believed to have killed four other women.
Biography
Sinclair's first murder was in 1961, when he was 16. He lured seven-year-old Catherine Reehill into his house, raped her and strangled her to death before throwing her body down the stairs to make it look like an accident and calling the police. An autopsy determined she had been raped and strangled but police were unable to prove Sinclair killed her or get him to confess. Eventually, Sinclair's brother John convinced him to confess to Reehill's murder. A psychiatrist deemed him obsessed with sex and declared that he would re-offend if released. Despite this, Sinclair was only sentenced to 10 year's detention as he was a minor, serving six years before he was released. He went on to become a decorator and move to Edinburgh.
On 15 October 1977, two 17-year-old girls, Christine Eadie and Helen Scott, were seen leaving the World's End pub in Edinburgh, the last time they were seen alive. The following day, Eadie's body was found on a hill in Lothian and Scott's body was found in a cornfield six miles away. Both had been beaten, gagged, tied up, raped and strangled. Several witnesses said they had seen the girls talking with two men after leaving the pub, but neither were identified and the investigation was scaled down the following year. Around the same time a series of similar murders occurred across Scotland. Frances Barker, Hilda McAuley, Agnes Cooney and Anna Kenny were abducted, bound and gagged with items of clothing, raped and strangled before being dumped on deserted farmland or wasteland. Police did not connect these murders to the World's End murders for several years, but now the same culprit is suspected (although another suspect, sex offender Thomas Ross Young, was convicted of Frances Barker's murder; he maintained that Sinclair was the real killer until he died in 2014).
In 1978, Sinclair abducted 17-year-old Mary Gallacher in Glasgow, raped her and stabbed her in the throat. However, a witness saw him abducting Gallacher. While the witness was unable to identify him, Sinclair was worried he would get caught if he killed again and decided to change his tactics to target children. Between 1978 and 1982 he raped or indecently assaulted countless children in Glasgow. He would lure them into his house and then raped them at knifepoint before releasing them.
In 1982 Sinclair was arrested for molesting children. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum tariff of 19 years. However, as he came up for parole in 2001 he was linked by DNA analysis to the rape and murder of Mary Gallacher. He was convicted and received another life sentence.
In 2003, a cold case review of the World's End murders lead to DNA testing of the semen on the killer's bodies. It was a partial match for over 200 recorded profiles, including Sinclair (two people had been involved, hence their were two people's DNA samples, which complicated the testing). Sinclair was compelled to provide a DNA sample, which was matched to the sample from the murders. Another match came from Sinclair's brother-in-law Gordon Hamilton, who could not be charged as he had died in 1996. Police attempted to do testing for the other 1977 murders, but all the evidence had been lost and they could only proceed with the World's End murders.
Sinclair was charged with the murders of Christine Eadie and Helen Scott. Sinclair insisted that the sex had been consensual and Gordon Hamilton must have been the killer. It was found that Sinclair had destroyed the car he owned at the time of the murders and so it could not be tested. Eventually, Sinclair's lawyers submitted a no case to answer request based on a lack of evidence Sinclair had not had consensual sex with the victims. Lord Justice Clark upheld the submission and formally acquitted Sinclair.
In 2012, the year after the United Kingdom abolished double jeopardy for murder cases, the World's End murders were re-opened. On 13 October 2014, 37 years after the murders, Angus Sinclair was brought to trial for the second time. This time his prior convictions for Catherine Reehill and Mary Gallacher's murder was submitted as evidence to prove that sex with the victims was likely non-consensual. On 14 November, Sinclair was convicted of the murders. He received a third life sentence and later died while serving his three life sentences at HMP Glenochil.