Taking on the Scottish Legal System
This is the story of a great miscarriage of justice that throws a dark shadow over the Scottish legal and judicial system. George Beattie was convicted of the murder of Margaret McLaughlin in 1973. Her body was discovered on July 7th in a glen near to her home in Carluke, a small town about halfway between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Margaret had been stabbed 19 times.
Many people believe that George Beattie is innocent of the crime. He was 18 at the time, a shy young man who was given to fantasising about his life and telling tall tales. But Beattie had been in the area at the time. He went through the glen to get to a market garden shop to buy some tomatoes.
Margaret McLaughlin had left home on the Carluke housing estate to catch a train at 8:03pm on Friday evening, July 6th 1973. She was a very pretty, somewhat reserved Catholic girl who was engaged to be married to a successful businessman who was away on business in South Africa when she was murdered. She had been stabbed 19 times.
George Beattie was arrested 5 days later and was later convicted. The police officer in charge of the case was one of Scotland's most famous - Detective Chief Superintendent William Muncie.
In 1983 the BBC programme "Rough Justice" covered the case, producing important new evidence.
The case has since become one of Scotland's most controversial cases. Beattie won a rare "appeal on reference" in 1994 when the Secretary of State of State for Scotland sent the case back to the appeal court. But the appeal was dismissed. He was then let out of jail - but only on licence. There are many reasons to suppose that Beattie is innocent of the murder and that the real murderer went free to kill again. This web site lists some articles outlining some of those proofs.
http://www.btinternet.com/~peter.hill34/bindex.htm
