(679)  THE WORLD’S END MURDERS CASE

 

The World’s End murder trial, which began on 27 August 2007, was sensational from the beginning.  It is not every day that a man is accused in court of committing a murder nearly 30 years ago; and in this case there were two murders.  The victims were Edinburgh teenagers Christine Eadie and Helen Scott, last seen alive in the World’s End pub in Edinburgh’s High Street on the evening of 15 October 1977.  Their bound and naked or near-naked bodies were found eight miles apart in East Lothian the next day.  DNA evidence was what brought Angus Sinclair (62) before Lord Clarke and a jury in the High Court; Sinclair lodged a special defence of incrimination, naming his late brother-in-law Gordon Hamilton as the sole perpetrator.  After two weeks of prosecution evidence, however, Sinclair’s advocate Edgar Prais QC put in a plea of No case to answer”