Angus Sinclair - Second Trial

As revolting as the collapse of Sinclair’s trial appeared to relatives of his victims, there was yet still one more injustice to realise – that of double jeopardy.“...how could such a strong case against such a person who was so obviously guilty fail like that?  But of course under double jeopardy at that time, he could not be retried and that was the matter finished.”But, it was anything but.A legal principle that had remained the same for nearly eight centuries was about to be changed. “The thing about double jeopardy, it’s a very important principle...The principle of finality.  If you stand trial for a crime and you’re acquitted that is the end of proceedings against you.  But there was a view which was growing...that really that didn’t meet modern science and that was regarded as hugely unfair and unjust.” Frank Mulholland QC, Lord Advocate And in 2011 the Double Jeopardy Scotland Act was passed and it addressed that very injustice.It meant a new trial could happen if new and compelling evidence was found. In the case of Sinclair, it was a new forensic device called Crime Light. It showed Sinclair’s and Hamilton’s DNA on the folds of the ligatures indicating that far from the girls playing along – they had been tied up.And this, together with forensic soil analysis, proved Helen was still alive when she entered the field where her body was found. This disproved Sinclair’s version of having consensual sex with her in a different location. Sinclair’s second trial began on 13 October 2014 at the High Court in Livingstone, West Lothian. Sinclair’s was the first trial to be heard under the new Double Jeopardy law. Again, Sinclair decides to talk, but this time, his version of events doesn’t help him – they damn him.This time he says he and his brother-in-law took the girls to a nearby park and in the back of his van, they all had consensual sex.Frank Mulholland, QC then exposed the truth in this lie. “I asked him, ‘How did you know the girls were consenting?”...And he gave a most chilling answer, he said, “They didn’t say no.”...I said, “Well what kind of conversation did you have?”  “None whatsoever.”  It was quite clear to me that what he was describing in reality was a rape, a double rape, by him and his brother in law.”The deceased Gordon Hamilton could not stand trial.Angus Sinclair, however, was found guilty.The judge in his trial was damning in his sentencing of Sinclair and of his treatment of his Helen and Christine.“Whatever dreams they had they turned in to nightmares shortly after they left the World’s End pub...The girls were subjected to an ordeal beyond comprehension and then left carrion, exposed for all to see, with no dignity, even in death.” Angus Sinclair was sentenced to 37 years in prison, the longest sentence ever handed down in a Scottish Court. “When I heard the length of the sentence I do recall there was a flinch: thirty-seven years; a year for every year that Christine’s family, my family have waited for justice and for Helen and Christine. It was right.”Kevin Scott, Helen’s brother