On a chilly autumn night in 1977, two teenage girls went out for an evening in Edinburgh, never to return home. The brutal murders of Helen Scott and Christine Eadie shocked Scotland and sparked one of the nation’s longest-running investigations.
Helen and Christine were last seen alive on the night of 15 October in the Royal Mile’s World’s End pub – a name which still causes a chill in an older generation of Edinburgh residents.
The next day their bodies were discovered several miles apart, dumped on the foreshore at Gosford Bay in East Lothian and in a farmer’s field between Aberlady and Haddington.
It would take nearly four decades, significant advances in forensic science, and unwavering determination from investigators to finally bring their killer and notorious sex offender, Angus Sinclair, to justice.
Now former chief police officer Tom Wood has published an updated chronicle of the determined crusade to bring closure for the families of the two girls. The World’s End Murders – the Inside Story – is a story of heroes says Wood – of the dignified families who carried an unimaginable burden over the years, and the police officers, support staff and forensic scientists who never gave up despite several catastrophic set backs.
The book singles out the then young forensic scientist, Lester Knibb, and his colleagues, highlighting the crucial role their careful preservation of crime scene evidence over a 37 year period played in securing Sinclair’s conviction in 2014.
The case also helped change Scots Law. After Sinclair was controversially acquitted in an earlier 2007 High Court trial, existing legislation under the so-called Double Jeopardy principle, meant he could not be tried again for the same crime.
Wood, the former Deputy Chief Constable of Lothian & Borders Police, was a young CID officer at the time Helen and Christine were reported missing but over time would take overall command of a murder mystery which long troubled Scotland.
He said: “Though not involved in the investigation of the crimes, Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland and Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill played a vital role in bring Angus Sinclair to justice.
“Following the botched trial of 2007, it would have been easy for both of these men to hide behind legal and political conventions, but they did not. Recognising that a miscarriage of justice had taken place, they went to extraordinary lengths to bring about a change of the law in Scotland in order to see justice done. The willingness of both men to challenge the status quo in the face of trenchant opposition was instrumental in the delivery of justice.”
The roles of retired Detective Superintendents John McGowan and Allan Jones are also praised in the book, but Wood said that if one man or group could be credited with solving The World’s End Murders, it was Lester Knibb and his forensic laboratory colleagues.
He said: “They meticulously recovered the forensic evidence from the crime scenes and protected and preserved them down the years. It was the scientists who had the vision to see the potential of what would eventually prove to be crucial DNA evidence.
“Put bluntly, The World’s End Murders would not have been solved and Angus Sinclair never brought to justice without the actions of Lester Knibb and his scientific colleagues.”
Sinclair died in prison in March 2019, convicted of four murders of women and girls, numerous attacks on children and was believed to be responsible for a further four murders.
- The World’s End Murders The Inside Story by Tom Wood is published by Ringwood Publishing.
Stephen Rafferty is a former crime correspondent at The Scotsman and was a staff reporter for the Daily Record and Edinburgh Evening News. He has freelanced for many of the Scottish and UK national newspaper titles. Got a story? Get in touch - stephen@theedinburghreporter.co.uk
