00:00:00
[audio logo] Fred Dinenage: On the 17th
of December 1995, police made a chilling
discovery in the Ayrshire
00:00:13
town of Kilmarnock-- the body of missing
schoolgirl, Mhairi Julyan. Jane Monckton-Smith:
It's the stuff
00:00:20
that nightmares are made of. It's what every parent
worries about when their child goes out.
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Fred Dinenage:
16-year-old Mhairi had been sexually assaulted
and strangled to death.
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Nikolas Lemos: This was
a very, very torturous death. It wasn't quick,
and it wasn't easy.
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It was very agonizing. Fred Dinenage: Mhairi's twisted
killer was 36-year-old Gavin
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McGuire, a man who
had already spent years behind bars
for a series of brutal attacks on young women.
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Doris Thomson: I've never
met anything like it. It's one of the most
dangerous men in the planet.
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Fred Dinenage: After a reign of
terror that lasted for decades, Gavin McGuire
would eventually be
00:01:08
unmasked as one of the world's
most evil killers. [theme music] ♪ ♪ In the run-up
to Christmas 1995,
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the brutal murder
of 16-year-old Mhairi Julyan
shattered the peace of a small Scottish Community.
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Geoffrey Wansell: She'd
been dragged by her hands, and there were
marks on her back.
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She'd been obliterated. I don't think there's
any other word for it. Nikolas Lemos: The perpetrator
used her own blouse
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to strangulate her,
and to keep her quiet and to probably
facilitate a quick death,
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shoved her own bra in her
mouth, making her gasp for air. Fred Dinenage: In the hunt
for her killer,
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police launched a huge
scale DNA testing operation of local men,
including convicted
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rapist Gavin McGuire. Jane Monckton-Smith:
McGuire was a serial predatory sex
offender who enjoyed
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the suffering of his victims. He should have been
stopped a long time ago. Geoffrey Wansell:
If ever there was
00:02:44
a man who you genuinely thought
was a danger to society, it was Gavin McGuire. Fred Dinenage: This
killer's story begins
00:02:54
on the 18th of December 1958. Gavin McGuire was born
in Stevenston in North Ayrshire
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on Scotland's West Coast. - His parents were
called Jimmy and Nettie. He was the oldest
of three boys.
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His dad was a laborer
in the steel industry. They were a typically working
class Scottish family.
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His dad was then made redundant
when McGuire was quite young, and that was the source
of a lot of financial conflict.
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Geoffrey Wansell: It
wasn't a happy family. Jim eventually left
the family, leaving
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Nettie with the three boys. Gavin was difficult as a child. Fred Dinenage:
At the age of 8, McGuire
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entered the care system. He did not thrive there. - From that point
on, we certainly
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see McGuire breaking the law
routinely and regularly and moving from simple care
system into the justice system.
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Jane Hamilton: His early
years were a mixture of assessment centers,
borstals, young offenders
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institutions, a list D school,
which is typically where troubled children will attend.
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Fred Dinenage:
By the early '70s, McGuire was regularly truanting. And his already
troubling behavior had
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grown even more disturbing. Jane Monckton-Smith: He
was starting to break into houses, stealing cars.
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He had some pets,
pigeons in a loft. He set fire to that loft,
killed all the pigeons,
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and reportedly stood
there and laughed as these birds died in the most
horrific circumstances.
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And then he went on and did
the same thing to some rabbits. Fire setting and cruelty to
animals, that's two big ticks.
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So I would say,
at around 14, we get a very good idea
of who McGuire is and what he's going to be
doing in his future.
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Geoffrey Wansell: He was
a loner, didn't mix well, wasn't comfortable
in the company of his peers.
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He wasn't a sociable animal. Jane Monckton-Smith:
McGuire was described as maybe shy, nervous.
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He has no social
skills, that he doesn't really know
how to communicate and interact with people.
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So that is suggestive
that, if he is a serial offender
and predator, that women are going
to become targets.
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Fred Dinenage:
In 1976, a few months after leaving school, McGuire's
malevolent urges towards women
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became apparent
when he embarked on a terrifying spree
of sexual violence in Stevenston and nearby
coastal towns.
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Jane Hamilton:
McGuire attacked his first victim at the age
of 17 when he assaulted a 15-year-old girl.
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He then attacked
another 15-year-old girl and sexually assaulted her. Two days later, he carried out
an attack on an 18-year-old
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girl, but she was
able to escape before he could sexually assault her. [ominous music]
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- There was
something in him that wanted to express itself
in this particularly brutal and
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unpleasant way to young women. And it's that, that
is the thread that goes through McGuire's story.
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Jane Monckton-Smith:
It's something that he feels compelled to do. What's driving him is
that he doesn't have
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the normal human emotions. He has no barriers, no filters
that's going to stop him.
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Fred Dinenage: McGuire
was arrested and charged with the attacks on the girls,
but released on bail
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for the sum of 10 pounds. It offered little deterrent. Within weeks, the year
old had resumed
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his pattern of offending. Jane Hamilton: While he was
on bail for these attacks,
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he then attacked an 18-year-old
pregnant woman and beat her up quite severely. - And he kicked
her to the ground
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and robbed the garage
thereafter. And he carried out
a similar theft in a garage
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nearby as well. Jane Monckton-Smith: This
is all in a period of days, and it does feel like
this is compulsive.
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Fred Dinenage: McGuire's
shocking spree continued, and another innocent
young woman fell
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victim to his deviant urges. Michael Orr: The latter
attack against a young lady
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who approached, he
threatened her with glass and, unfortunately,
achieved his objective
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of raping that young lady. Jane Monckton-Smith:
He's reckless. He's been caught mid
offense, sometimes.
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He's been chased. He just continues. It seems to me like he
has no care for what
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happens to his victims. He doesn't seem to have
a huge amount of care for what happens to him either.
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Fred Dinenage:
McGuire was quickly identified and apprehended. Back in court,
he admitted eight
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new offenses to the judge. Geoffrey Wansell:
Rape, sexual assault, assault with sexual
intent, theft, car theft,
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a multitude of bad behavior. Fred Dinenage:
In February 1977, less than a year after leaving
borstal 18-year-old Gavin
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McGuire was back
inside, sentenced to 10 years in a young
offenders institution.
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The judge told
McGuire the tariff was necessary to protect the girls
and women of Stevenson
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from the serial offender. - This is a man
who's out of control. There can be no
question about that.
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[ominous music] ♪ ♪ Fred Dinenage:
By December 1995, 36-year-old Gavin
McGuire was living
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with his mother in Stevenston. 20 minutes away
in the town of Kilmarnock, schoolgirl Mhairi
Julyan was enjoying
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the lead up to Christmas. - Mhairi Julyan
was the youngest of two girls to a family
that had been described
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as honest, hardworking,
and well liked within their local community. Mhairi herself was described
as a shy, conscientious girl.
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Fred Dinenage: On the evening
of December the 16th, Mhairi went to a pantomime
at the town's Palace Theater.
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- She's gone with her
best friend, Julianne, to see The Sleeping Beauty. It's not very far
from where she lives.
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Jane Hamilton:
The last anybody seen her was when Julianne
waved to Mhairi as they
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drove away in their car. The plan was Mhairi's
dad would come and pick her up after the performance.
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However, the play
finished early and Mhairi had let
her dad know that she was just going to make the
half-mile journey home by foot.
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Fred Dinenage: Mhairi Julyan's
parents were expecting her home by around 10:00 PM.
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But by 10:30, there
was no sign of her. It was extremely unusual
for the 16-year-old
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not to be home as expected. In the darkness, her
mother walked the route Mhairi should have taken.
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Jane Hamilton: Mhairi's family
were frightened when she didn't arrive as expected at home.
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And they very quickly
called the police to report her missing. Nikolas Lemos:
And this is where
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the officers come across
a horrific human crime scene. Fred Dinenage: It was every
parent's worst nightmare.
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16-year-old Mhairi
Julyan had been murdered while walking home. The shy schoolgirl had been
attacked and brutalized
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in a way that would
terrify the local community and shock even
seasoned detectives.
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[tense music] [tense music] ♪ ♪ Fred Dinenage:
Less than 24 hours since her disappearance,
Mhairi Julyan's family
00:11:08
learned of the horrific
nature of their daughter's brutal murder. [grim music] ♪ ♪
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Jane Hamilton:
A police officer found Mhairi in a stagecoach bus
depot in McKinley Crescent.
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Geoffrey Wansell: She's naked,
but for her boots and socks. Her blouse is tied
around her neck,
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and her bra is shoved
in her mouth as a gag. Fred Dinenage: It was
a devastating discovery
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for Mhairi's family, who
learned that the teenager had been killed just
two minutes away
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from the safety of her home. For the community, utter shock. Jane Monckton-Smith:
Just a young girl
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coming home from
a pantomime, it's the stuff that nightmares are made of. It's what every parent
worries about when
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their child goes out. And to have it
actually play out in the middle of this
tight-knit community
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would have sent
shockwaves and fear through absolutely everybody. Michael Orr: In my 30-year
police career, I could
00:12:21
think of a few similar cases. It's a very friendly place. I grew up in the local area.
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I know the area well. This case would have been
shocking to the community. Fred Dinenage:
A post-mortem examination
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the following day
revealed that Mhairi had been the victim of a
vicious and prolonged attack.
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- There were a lot of injuries
on Mhairi's body, 47 injuries. A lot of them were
to her face and head.
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There were defensive wounds
so that we can see that she fought him and she fought him.
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Jane Hamilton: Mhairi
was covered in dirt, and she had cuts
on her shoulders. And it was suspected
that she had
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been dragged along
the ground with her hand. The cause of death
at her post-mortem
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was marked as asphyxia
due to strangulation. - It was a very,
very torturous death.
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It wasn't quick,
and it wasn't easy. It was very agonizing. Fred Dinenage: The police
told the press and
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the public they believed
the violent attack had been sexually motivated. - Strathclyde police
launched an immediate
00:13:35
murder investigation. They conducted
dozens of interviews. Michael Orr: The London
Road that she walked along
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is a busy road,
so there would have been a number of cars, a number
of drivers driving along
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that road to go
to certain places in the Kilmarnock
area and outskirts. - A lot of energy is
expended by the local police
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to track down somebody who can
treat an innocent young woman in such a dreadful manner.
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- Everybody who has
a teenage daughter would have been
fearful of letting them out in the streets.
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The community would be scared
until individuals arrested for this, absolutely no doubt.
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And there would be a lot of
reassurance, a big reassurance job by the police. Fred Dinenage: Police quickly
ruled out those close to Mhairi
00:14:23
as suspects and widened
their search, harnessing local
and national media. - Mhairi's father,
Philip, made an appeal
00:14:31
to the public
for any information about his daughter's
final movements on the night she disappeared.
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[cameras clicking] - The Daily Record also
offered a 10,000 pound reward for any
information leading
00:14:58
to her killer's conviction. Fred Dinenage:
Someone in the area had clearly been
watching the news.
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A few days into the new
year, just under three weeks after Mhairi's
murder, her parents
00:15:10
received an anonymous
letter in the post. Geoffrey Wansell:
It's 14 lines long,
00:15:16
and it includes several
fascinating facts. It says, "I think my son may
have killed your daughter."
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It goes on to say that on the
night of the 16th of December, the night of the killing, her
son had come home and said,
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"I've done something bad." It goes on to say, "Sorry,
I can't give him up. I love him."
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Fred Dinenage: It was
an intriguing lead. The police appealed for the
letter writer to come forward.
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- It's important that if she's
genuine in her belief, then she should have
the confidence to come
00:15:53
forward and speak to us. Fred Dinenage: But the writer
remained anonymous. And three weeks after
Mhairi's violent death,
00:16:00
the police were still
in the dark about her killer. - Stranger murders are
the most difficult to solve
00:16:07
because there's no relationship
between the killer and the victim. Most victims do
know their killers.
00:16:15
So how do we find
who the suspects are? Michael Orr: The early
stages of a case like this,
00:16:21
it's a whirlwind. You've got a number
of competing elements. You have the media element.
00:16:25
You sometimes get
misinformation. You have the family
side, which is extensive. You get experts
in to speak to the family.
00:16:35
There's pressure from a whole
lot of different areas. But ultimately,
your goal is to succeed
00:16:40
and bringing
somebody to justice and hopefully bring
closure to the family in the worst of circumstances.
00:16:47
Jane Monckton-Smith:
The police have to be lucky. They have to hope that
they leave something
00:16:52
at the crime scene
that identifies them, or they have to hope that
their movements can be tracked.
00:17:02
Fred Dinenage: Scene
of crime officers attending the bus depot had
meticulously examined
00:17:06
the area for anything that
could help identify the killer. Nikolas Lemos: They
find a shoelace
00:17:13
that has been torn
apart, and they find blood-soaked clothing. Now, this is very
important because it
00:17:22
could be the blood
of the assailant with all of their genetic
profile present. But it could also be
the blood of the victim,
00:17:29
putting them together. Fred Dinenage: On the left
sleeve of Mhairi's jacket, tests revealed blood.
00:17:35
The laboratory
processing the clothing discovered two
different sources of blood, one
belonging to Mhairi,
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the other from her killer. - They were not smart enough
or thorough enough to clean up.
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They actually left
a lot of evidence that, in the hands of the right
forensic scientist,
00:17:57
could produce the evidence
needed to identify this person and bring them to justice.
00:18:05
Jane Monckton-Smith:
The killer left their DNA at the crime scene. And DNA was quite
new in those days,
00:18:14
and the DNA database
was incredibly new. But at least, the police
knew they had this tool
00:18:22
that, if they
could get a match, that would definitively
identify who was at the scene
00:18:29
when Mhairi died. Nikolas Lemos: Today,
we have DNA databases where people who
have been involved
00:18:35
in the criminal justice
system have their DNA stored. That was not
available back then.
00:18:42
Now, we had to find
that perpetrator. So the police goes
on a mission to find the donor
00:18:48
of this piece of DNA. - And they start a systematic
search of men between about 20 and 40 in the area.
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Michael Orr: Carrying
out this exercise would have been extremely
unusual and groundbreaking.
00:19:03
But it was perceived as a line
of inquiry, the best way to go about it. Nikolas Lemos: They
start by testing
00:19:10
everybody who works
at the location of the crime, the bus depot. When that search
proves fruitless,
00:19:18
they actually expand
the search and eventually test
over 20,000 male donors trying to find a match.
00:19:29
Fred Dinenage: It
was a mammoth task. But Strathclyde police were
drawing on all the resources
00:19:34
available to them, including
painstakingly trawling through hours of tapes from
the town's surveillance cameras
00:19:42
from the night
Mhairi was abducted. Their dedication paid off. - The police identified
some CCTV at 9:20 that same
00:19:53
evening in a shopping mall. Fred Dinenage:
A sharp-eyed officer homed in on a familiar figure.
00:19:58
[tense music] ♪ ♪ Michael Orr: The CCTV
clearly showed him in person in the area
few hundred yards away
00:20:08
from the crime scene
on the night in question, just before the crime
had been committed.
00:20:13
Fred Dinenage: It was a man
local police knew well, a man who'd spent
most of his adult life
00:20:19
in prison for attacks
on young women. Detectives were confident they
had Mhairi's killer on camera.
00:20:29
[tense music] [tense music] ♪ ♪ Fred Dinenage: Eight years
before Mhairi Julyan's murder
00:20:40
in the summer of 1986,
33-year-old Doris Thomson booked a family
holiday in saltcoats
00:20:48
on the North Ayrshire Coast. Doris Thomson: I
had a baby in 1985, and I wasn't working then.
00:20:59
And I just had plenty
to do with the children. I still had mum mom and my dad. My sister and her boyfriend and
my youngest son, we all went.
00:21:13
I had a week booked
at Saltcoats Caravan Park. - Saltcoats was a very, very
busy holiday destination
00:21:22
for most people in Scotland. At that time, it would
be busy, certainly, in the summer months.
00:21:28
Doris Thomson: It
was nice that week. It was very good to get out and
about, but we were enjoying it.
00:21:36
The first two or three days
before anything took place, we were having fun. Fred Dinenage: The holiday
was filled with trips
00:21:45
to the beach and funfair. But within days, events
took an horrific turn. Doris and her husband
went out for drinks
00:21:54
in the pretty harbor town
with her sister and partner. Doris Thomson: I think
we went into one pub.
00:22:00
And then we just had one drink,
and that's where we all sat, laughing and having
a good time.
00:22:08
Must have been
just after 11:00. And my sister, she had
a splitting headache. She wanted to go
back to the caravan.
00:22:16
My husband had
went to the caravan to make sure she was all right. My brother-in-law
went for a taxi.
00:22:21
It was just a mixup that night. Fred Dinenage: Doris
found herself in the dark,
00:22:27
deserted streets, alone. As she tried to make
her way back, a man appeared
from a side street,
00:22:35
grabbing her around the neck. [tense music] - First thing the man did
was take your tights off.
00:22:45
Take your tights off. Just put the tights
right round my throat. He was pulling as tight
as he could pull,
00:22:51
so I could start and feel
myself fainting at that point. Fred Dinenage: As Doris
struggled for a means of escape
00:22:59
or to attract the attention
of people in the nearby flats, her attacker dragged her to a
gap in the stone harbor wall.
00:23:09
- So he dragged me in there
and told me to strip naked. All this time, his
hands was on my throat.
00:23:17
So after I'd stripped,
he pushed me down, and it went from there. Fred Dinenage: The man began
to sexually assault Doris,
00:23:26
all the while beating her. - He just went into an utter
frenzy, punching and kicking.
00:23:35
I didn't know where
the blood was coming from. I thought, what
am I going to do?
00:23:42
So I fought back, and it
was punch for punch. And then that was when the
strangling started really bad.
00:23:48
So I decided I would
go the other way, and I would stay calm. That's not what he wanted.
00:23:53
He wanted a fight. Fred Dinenage:
Desperate, Doris told the attacker she had five young
children, one just a baby.
00:24:01
His response was to laugh. - How can you laugh at us? This went on for ages. And then the next
thing, he leans back
00:24:12
and he picks up my dress. And he says, put that back on. And I thought, oh, good.
00:24:18
I said, he's letting
me put on my dress, and he's going to vanish. Fred Dinenage: Having emptied
the change from Doris's purse,
00:24:24
the attacker dragged her
by the throat to the sea wall where he throttled her. Doris played dead,
sinking onto the ground.
00:24:32
But her attacker was not
finished with her yet. - And he just laughed at me. And he threw me straight
off the harbor into the sea.
00:24:42
Fred Dinenage: Doris struggled
in the cold, dark water, knowing she was still not safe.
00:24:50
- I lay floating just
with my head to the side, enough just to let air
in, and I could keep
00:24:55
an eye on the harbor wall. It was quite a bright
night that night. The moon was bright.
00:25:01
I could see him running about
the harbor wall up and down. And I thought, God,
is he looking for me?
00:25:07
Jane Monckton-Smith: He
watched her struggling. There was that enjoyment
of somebody else's suffering.
00:25:13
So this guy is a sadist. - Coming out the water
is terrifying. But I knew it was
getting daylight.
00:25:21
It was starting to break,
and I thought he was going to see me sooner or later. I've got to get out.
00:25:27
- It's an extraordinary
escape and a great tribute to her will to live. Doris Thomson: I was shaking.
00:25:32
I was in shock. I just looked everywhere
to make sure he wasn't there. I ran across, knocked
all the doors.
00:25:42
Fred Dinenage: It was
the early hours of the morning, but one resident
opened their door
00:25:46
to Doris, whose clothes were
drenched in seawater and blood. Doris Thomson:
The first thing I made
00:25:52
them do was bolt the door. I was terrified in case
he was still there. So that's where I was until
I was taken to hospital.
00:26:01
Fred Dinenage: Doris's
jaw was fractured and her front teeth
had been knocked out.
00:26:07
But she was
determined to identify the man who tried to kill her. Doris Thomson: Oh, I was angry.
00:26:15
The anger was in me. And every time I
prayed, I would say, please let me get him.
00:26:21
Please let me catch this man. [grim music] ♪ ♪ Fred Dinenage:
For the next two days,
00:26:29
in the hope of spotting
her attacker, Doris accompanied two
female plainclothes
00:26:34
detectives around the pubs
and clubs of Saltcoats. [tense music] ♪ ♪ Doris Thomson: I went up
and down the day after.
00:26:45
When I get out of the hospital,
I was determined he wasn't getting away with it.
00:26:49
I think it was two days
after, we went for a tea into the cafe. And the two girls went
off on their own way
00:26:56
and left me with my husband. And I was sitting,
and he went by the door. And I thought, there he goes.
00:27:05
Fred Dinenage: With
the plainclothes detectives at the other end of the town,
Doris and her husband
00:27:10
followed the man
to a nearby bar. As he took the first
sips of his pint, she confronted her attacker.
00:27:17
Doris Thomson: I said, it's me. It's me. I was the woman that you
tried to kill on the shore.
00:27:25
You got the wrong man,
got the wrong man. Fred Dinenage:
Doris's husband and locals held the man whilst
they waited for the police
00:27:35
to return. They arrested him and
identified him as 28-year-old Gavin McGuire, a man with a
long rap sheet for sex crimes,
00:27:47
a man who thought
nothing of inflicting pain and suffering on the women
he came into contact with.
00:27:54
- Her life was not
only threatened. He thought it was over. That kind
of experience is going
00:28:02
to have a lifelong effect. Fred Dinenage: Charged
at first with the rape and attempted murder
of Doris Thompson,
00:28:11
McGuire's defense team offered
a guilty plea to the lesser charge of assault and rape.
00:28:19
In August 1986, he was
convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison. - I was happy that
they convicted him,
00:28:30
but I was deeply unhappy
that they had dropped the attempted murder charge. Geoffrey Wansell:
The judge calls
00:28:37
him a menace to society
and particularly to women, and that's not
an understatement.
00:28:41
[disturbing music] ♪ ♪ Fred Dinenage:
In 1993, having served just part of his
10-year sentence,
00:28:54
Gavin McGuire was released. The 34-year-old serial
sex offender was deemed to be safe
and returned to his
00:29:02
mother's house in Stevenston. Jane Monckton-Smith:
This is somebody with a personality disorder.
00:29:09
This is somebody who enjoys
watching women suffer. Of course, he was going
to start offending again.
00:29:18
Fred Dinenage: On the evening
of August the 12th, 1995, in the Ayrshire
town of Kilbirnie,
00:29:24
9 miles from Gavin
McGuire's home, a 21-year-old woman was
subjected to a terrifying
00:29:30
attack in a park. Held by a man
in a stranglehold, she fought for her life. - She's obviously
horrified, frightened.
00:29:40
But she attacks
the only way she can. She bites his finger. He lets her go. A few days later, she
sees him in the town.
00:29:51
I mean, he's not
hiding anywhere. He's not gone on the run. Fred Dinenage: The man she
identified as her attacker
00:29:58
was Gavin McGuire. - The police are
alerted and is arrested. This is good, and I
want this evidence
00:30:06
as you could possibly get. Fred Dinenage: McGuire
denied the allegation. It was the young woman's
word against his.
00:30:16
- There's a debate about when
the bite actually took place. - The physician
who examined, who
00:30:23
was actually not
a dermatologist, determined that this injury
could have only happened
00:30:30
in the last 72
hours, which was, unfortunately, inconsistent
with what the victim alleged.
00:30:38
- The case was dropped due
to lack of corroboration in Scotland, which requires at
least two witnesses to a crime.
00:30:47
Fred Dinenage: Without
concrete evidence linking Gavin McGuire
to the attack, police could no
longer detain him.
00:30:55
- At the end of November
1995, McGuire is released. It's like letting
a panther out of a cage.
00:31:06
Fred Dinenage: 19 days later,
15 miles away in Kilmarnock, the brutal murder
of Mhairi Julyan
00:31:12
sparked a high-profile
hunt for her killer. In early January 1996,
detectives had a breakthrough.
00:31:20
CCTV from the night
of her disappearance showed a man following
another young woman, a man
00:31:27
they recognized immediately. - It was Gavin McGuire. There was no doubt
in anybody's mind about that.
00:31:35
Michael Orr: That was
an incredible thing to pick that up
whilst routinely looking through CCTV footage.
00:31:41
The officers knew of McGuire
from before from his activities in the Stevenson
area, the local area.
00:31:48
- On the 8th of January
1996, they interview him for the first time. He says no, no, I was
nowhere near the bus depot.
00:31:56
I was in a bar
in Kilmarnock called the Tudor Bar,
and I didn't leave until close to 11:00, 10:45.
00:32:04
Fred Dinenage: McGuire's
story did little to convince investigators. And his carefully concocted
alibi was revealed to be false.
00:32:14
- He did change his story
when police showed him a video of himself
in the shopping mall
00:32:20
close to where Mhairi
was attending theater. In fact, he was there
Christmas shopping.
00:32:28
Fred Dinenage: It was enough
to obtain a search warrant. On the 26th of January
1996, a search conducted
00:32:35
at McGuire's mother's home
recovered clothes and a piece of broken shoelace, similar
in appearance to the one
00:32:43
found by Mhairi's body. Nikolas Lemos: He
was brought in, and a biological sample
of his is tested for DNA.
00:32:51
But he has two brothers. And those two brothers
need to be excluded, so their DNA is also tested.
00:32:59
And although we're very close,
DNA-wise, to our siblings, there are little, tiny
differences that set one
00:33:06
sibling apart from another. And McGuire's DNA
is proven to be the one that
matches the DNA that
00:33:15
was recovered from
the scene of the crime and not his brothers'. Geoffrey Wansell:
And at the end of January 1996,
00:33:23
McGuire is charged with
the murder of Mhairi Julyan. [tense music] ♪ ♪ Fred Dinenage: But unlike
his court appearance in 1986,
00:33:34
following the attack
on Doris Thompson, McGuire refused
to make any admission of guilt. Mhairi Julyan's
family would have
00:33:42
to endure the nightmare
of a trial, reliving the painful details
of their daughter's horrific
00:33:49
and agonizing final moments. [tense music] [tense music] Fred Dinenage: In January
1996, Gavin McGuire
00:34:03
was in custody charged
with the murder of Kilmarnock schoolgirl,
Mhairi Julyan.
00:34:09
If found guilty,
the 37-year-old, who terrorized the young
women of Ayrshire for so long,
00:34:16
would face life imprisonment. [tense music] - McGuire was charged
with Mhairi's murder.
00:34:25
And he appeared at Kilmarnock
Sheriff court three days later. Gordon Jackson: I was
instructed for Gavin McGuire.
00:34:33
I had consultations
with McGuire, so I would have been involved
from a reasonably early stage.
00:34:39
Fred Dinenage: The trial
for Mhairi Julyan's murder at Glasgow High Court
began in May 1996.
00:34:46
The prosecution
played a second piece of CCTV footage,
which showed McGuire stalking his victim as she
walked home from the theater.
00:34:56
Michael Orr:
A predator, of which there are few in Scotland
who could easily have
00:35:01
committed a crime like this. And he's got him on camera. Major breakthrough. Gordon Jackson:
He had originally
00:35:08
followed another girl
out of the underpass. And quite quickly, she
turned into her own house.
00:35:14
So he came back, and then
he followed the victim. Her home wasn't that far. She walked home through
an underpass and then
00:35:23
onto a main road. Fred Dinenage: Presented
with the video evidence, McGuire was
defiant, challenging
00:35:29
the prosecutor to produce
any footage that showed him killing the girl. Geoffrey Wansell: McGuire is
very, very angry in the dock.
00:35:38
I mean, they point out that
he's lied about where he was, that he was in the Tudor Bar.
00:35:43
No, you weren't. CCTV shows you're
somewhere else. He's really, really furious. And at one point, he
actually shouts in the court,
00:35:53
"You've not got me on video
killing her, so prove it." Fred Dinenage: McGuire had
preyed upon young women
00:36:01
since adolescence. He had a string of convictions
of vicious sexual assaults and rapes to his name.
00:36:09
But at trial, these
were irrelevant. - Previous convictions
are not allowed to be mentioned in court.
00:36:16
The fact of previous
convictions, even if I know them,
do not impact on how I conduct a trial at all.
00:36:24
Fred Dinenage:
Also in the court was Doris Thomson,
who had suffered an horrific three-hour ordeal
at McGuire's hands in 1986.
00:36:34
Doris Thomson: When I heard
about the murder in the paper, I had a feeling. I said, I wonder if he's out.
00:36:41
I didn't even know he was out. I went to the trial,
just listened to it. Fred Dinenage:
The prosecution had an ace
00:36:50
up their sleeve,
a key witness who was ready to take the stand. - One striking thing I remember
is that his mom cooperated and,
00:37:00
indeed, gave quite
important evidence, which, frankly, was a very
brave thing for her to do.
00:37:07
Fred Dinenage: Nettie McGuire
courageously testified against her own son in court.
00:37:12
It's never been
confirmed whether or not she wrote the anonymous
letter to Mhairi's family.
00:37:21
Geoffrey Wansell: She
gave evidence against him. She said that when
she found his jeans
00:37:26
in the washing machine
the following day, there was blood on them. Nikolas Lemos:
A trial transpires
00:37:34
that Gavin McGuire's mother
had decided to wash them after believing his
explanation that he tripped
00:37:42
and injured himself while
going to the toilet. Fred Dinenage:
In court, McGuire
00:37:47
insisted his mother
was mistaken, claiming it was,
in fact, mud on his jeans from walking the dog.
00:37:55
McGuire had denied
everything, but he could not hope to explain
the damning evidence
00:38:01
that detectives had amassed
against him, including the shoelace recovered from the
search of his mother's home.
00:38:10
- The piece that was
found at the scene and the piece that was found
at the house of the assailant
00:38:15
could actually be put
together and physically match irrefutable evidence. Michael Orr: Ultimately,
the crux of the case
00:38:24
was the DNA evidence that
was found at the scene. Nikolas Lemos: They
were able to pinpoint
00:38:30
the DNA to McGuire himself. After examining
McGuire's DNA, we have to find out what are
the chances that another person
00:38:41
could have deposited
this kind of DNA at that scene with this kind of
matching on the markers we're
00:38:48
looking at. And at the time,
the forensic scientists determined that the odds of
that happening were 8,200 to 1.
00:38:57
This was an incredibly
high match ratio. - There is not much
doubt in anyone's mind
00:39:05
that McGuire is guilty. This is not a master
criminal, but he is an exceptionally
dangerous man,
00:39:13
capable of monstrous deeds. Fred Dinenage: In spite
of the evidence against him,
00:39:19
McGuire maintained his
innocence in Mhairi's murder, forcing her parents to suffer
the agony of hearing
00:39:26
in detail what horrors
she'd suffered. Two weeks after the high
profile trial had begun,
00:39:34
the jury retired
to consider its verdict. - We were upset, and I couldn't
get out to look at him.
00:39:41
But it didn't bother me. It didn't bother me. I was more focused on what
was he going to get, and see
00:39:49
how he does time for a while. He's bound to be. [tense music] ♪ ♪ - While the verdict
was being deliberated,
00:39:57
the senior police officer
standing outside the court were as nervous as I've
ever seen police
00:40:03
officers before a verdict. The jury returned
a verdict very quickly in about 30 minutes
or so, which, on any view,
00:40:10
is very quick in a case
of that seriousness. [tense music] - Animal! Jane Hamilton:
On the 30th of May 1996,
00:40:21
McGuire was sentenced
to 30 years in prison for the murder of Mhairi. Judge Lord Clyde called the
crime an atrocity without mercy
00:40:31
and reiterated that McGuire
should never, ever be released back into the public.
00:40:38
- When I heard it
was 30 years, I kept saying he's away for 30
years, and that I felt relief.
00:40:48
But for me, that 30
years was not enough. I don't think a man like
that should be ever released
00:40:55
because I know it's
in him and what's in him because I've seen it. Rehabilitation will
never fix that.
00:41:03
He's going to come
out repeatedly, and he'll just keep
repeating what he's doing.
00:41:09
Michael Orr: He's already
spent decades in prison at that time
for attacks on women,
00:41:16
since he was a very young man. What was known
about him at age 37, and sometimes, this
kind of behavior
00:41:23
could stop
as individuals get older. There's no signs of that
happening with Gavin McGuire.
00:41:29
Fred Dinenage: In 2002,
McGuire appealed his sentence. Eight years had been
added to his original term
00:41:37
to protect the public
from danger. But New European
human rights laws ruled this should be determined
by a parole board, not a judge.
00:41:49
His 30 years was
reduced to 22 minimum, meaning he became eligible
for parole in 2018.
00:41:57
Geoffrey Wansell: I
cannot believe that rage, that urge within him
would have gone away, even
00:42:02
though he's now in his 60s. It's a very hard
fire to extinguish. No matter how hard you
try to rehabilitate him,
00:42:12
it's very, very hard. Jane Monckton-Smith:
I don't think McGuire is ever going to change.
00:42:17
He is always going
to be a danger to women. And he's probably one of those
people who the parole board
00:42:24
should never release. - One of the most dangerous
criminals that not just Scotland, but the world
has ever known.
00:42:32
Fred Dinenage: For Doris,
McGuire's potential release is a terrifying prospect.
00:42:38
- Nobody ever
gets away from me. That's what he said. Nevertheless, I still suffer
from post-traumatic stress.
00:42:50
It would have been
easy to give up. Because I was exhausted. I was frightened. My children, that was
my life saver because I
00:43:03
had to look after them. I wouldn't leave them, never. I'd never leave them. [grim music]
00:43:11
♪ ♪ But at the same time, I'm here. And I'm living
to tell the tale. And there's a lot
to be grateful.
00:43:20
[tense music] ♪ ♪ Fred Dinenage:
For McGuire, hurting others was a compulsion, one that
started in early childhood
00:43:31
with the animals in his care. His violent attacks escalated
throughout his teens,
00:43:38
20s, and 30s, with long stints
in prison proving no deterrent. With the brutal and senseless
murder of 16-year-old Mhairi
00:43:48
Julyan in 1995,
Gavin McGuire was finally recognized as one of
the world's most evil killers.
00:43:56
[theme music] ♪ ♪ [audio logo]