Trails of blood in the snow – 40 years on from the Glencorse Massacre

It’s 40 years because the bloodied our bodies of three troopers had been present in a heap subsequent to a reservoir in Scotland’s Pentland Hills.

A farmer got here throughout the scene on 17 January 1985, after following a path of blood within the snow from a crashed Land Rover he found with the engine nonetheless operating.

With the IRA bombings at their top, the troopers from Midlothian’s Glencorse Barracks had been initially regarded as the victims of a terrorist assault.

However Tom Walker, then a police inspector who was one of many first on the scene, stated the proof shortly led them to a fellow soldier.

He has spoken to PJ Scotland Information about his reminiscences of the triple homicide on the fortieth anniversary of the so-called Glencorse Bloodbath.

The boys had been found beside a small derelict home at Loganlea reservoir, about 10 miles south of Edinburgh.

Employees Sgt Terrance Hosker, 39, and Pte John Thomson, 25, had been in uniform. They had been discovered alongside retired Main David Cunningham, 56.

“After I received there in the back of the home and on the backside of the steps had been three lifeless our bodies all mendacity on high of one another in a crumpled heap,” Mr Walker informed PJ Scotland Information.

“There was blood and cartridge circumstances mendacity round on the snow on the backside of the steps.”

He stated they had been shocked because it seemed like a terrorist assault, which might have been the primary of its sort in Scotland.

However in a short time the proof pointed to Andrew Walker, a long-serving corporal teacher from The Royal Scots, who was 30 on the time.

Walker had been determined for cash. He knew that Thursday was pay day for the junior troopers coaching at Glencorse Barracks, and so they received paid in money.

Each Thursday “common as clockwork” a Land Rover and a crew of three troopers would make the journey to the financial institution in close by Penicuik.

No particular safety preparations had been made and the escort was unarmed.

Walker took a Sterling sub machine gun from the armoury and loaded it with ammunition he stored as spare.

Then, concealing the quick barrelled weapon underneath his military coat, he flagged down the payroll Land Rover and requested for a elevate again to the barracks.

Being recognized to the payroll crew, they allowed him to leap into the again of the automobile.

He had deliberate to shoot all three of them deep within the Pentland Hills however as he hijacked them at gunpoint there was a scuffle at the back of the automobile and Employees Sgt Hosker was shot.

Walker then additionally killed Maj Cunningham.

Subsequent he compelled Pte Thomson to take a detour into the Pentland Hills at Flotterstone and as much as Loganlea reservoir.

There he made the younger soldier assist him drag the our bodies to the again of the cottage.

Nevertheless, if Pte Thomson thought his assist would earn him mercy he was flawed.

Walker would depart no witnesses – Pte Thomson was executed, with a bullet within the head.

“This can be a soldier capturing his brothers in arms. It is diabolical, it truly is,” stated Mr Wooden.

And all for simply £19,000 – sufficient to purchase two vehicles on the time.

Walker had been deep in debt and he had thought he might make it appear to be an IRA terrorist assault and theft.

However his plan went flawed when his getaway automobile skidded on the slippery path on his manner out of the Pentland Hills to the primary street – getting caught in an icy ditch.

“He had in all probability deliberate to dump the Land Rover, clear the gun and shortly return to barracks earlier than he was missed,” Mr Wooden stated.

“Because it was, his plan and timescales had been in tatters. He was now on foot with a bloodied uniform, an inconvenient gun he needed to return, and a bag of money he needed to conceal.

“Being expert within the artwork of concealment he in all probability hid out for some time earlier than making off throughout the snowy panorama.”

When it was secure he made his manner again to barracks however by that point his actions had been underneath scrutiny.

Shootings had been unusual within the east of Scotland, a number of shootings rarer nonetheless.

This was no atypical crime, Mr Wooden stated.

“On the face of it, the crimes bore a few of the hallmarks of a terrorist assault.

“The Provisional IRA had been energetic on the mainland of Britain, they favoured army targets, and had been at all times in search of funds.

“They weren’t averse to a little bit of theft in pursuit of their trigger.”

Nevertheless, there have been issues with the terrorist principle.

“First the Provisional IRA had by no means carried out an assault in Scotland – seeing the Scots as Gaelic cousins that they had privately declared Scotland ‘out of bounds’.

“Secondly, it was the behavior of the IRA to say duty for his or her assaults, in order to boost their reputations in addition to spreading terror.”

No-one had claimed duty.

Col Clive Fairweather, the commanding officer at Glencorse Barracks, labored with cops investigating the murders.

An skilled army man, he had been second answerable for the SAS operation that stormed the Iranian Embassy in London in 1980.

“No-one knew the Military or its troopers higher than Col Fairweather, and he shortly noticed the bullet circumstances at the back of the bloodied Land Rover,” Mr Woods stated.

“He knew the sort effectively, they had been all 9mm parabellum circumstances, a calibre not often favoured by terrorists however in widespread utilization by the British Military for all its small arms, pistols and Sterling sub machine weapons.”

The Det Ch Supt and Col Fairweather had been starting to suspect the theft was an “inside job”.

A witness had additionally come ahead to say that they had seen 4 males within the Land Rover outdoors the financial institution – and three had been in uniform.

“It was a major piece of data,” stated Mr Wooden.

There was additionally one gun that had been taken out of the armoury and changed by Walker within the logs that day which matched with a bullet lodged in Employees Sgt Hosker’s shoulder.

“Every rifle barrel is completely different in minute element and leaves distinct striation marks on the mushy lead of a bullet head because it passes down the barrel,” Mr Woods stated.

“The firing pins of particular person weapons additionally depart distinctive marks on the detonator caps of bullet casings.

“It was greatest and conclusive proof.”

Walker returned the gun earlier than going absent with out depart for 3 days.

He ultimately returned to the barracks and tried to bluster it out, denying all information, and suggesting it had been the IRA that had been accountable however he was detained.

Shortly afterwards he was arrested when ballistic outcomes arrived again from the lab.

Walker denied his crimes however a jury within the Excessive Court docket in Edinburgh discovered him responsible of the murders.

Choose Lord Grieve really helpful he serve a minimum of 30 years in jail due to his “callous disregard for human life”. This was decreased to 27 years on attraction.

In 2011 Walker was launched from jail on compassionate grounds, two years after a stroke left him severely disabled.

He died from a respiratory an infection and suspected most cancers in a care dwelling in Wishaw, North Lanarkshire, in 2021 on the age of 67.

“Andrew Walker was a cold-hearted killer who got down to rob within the sure information that to flee he must kill his three comrades in arms,” stated Mr Wooden.

“I believe he was concerned in some fairly brutal stuff in Northern Eire as a result of what he did was a cold-hearted execution.”

He does not suppose Walker was mentally unwell, he was “only a depraved man”.

“He had completely no empathy for human struggling and that is what makes me surprise what he had been uncovered to early in his Military service.”

His planning of the crime was easy and audacious however poorly thought by means of, he added.

Mr Woods stated, like many criminals, his plan of assault was a lot better deliberate than his plan of escape.

“As a army man he ought to have recognized that no plan survives contact with actuality, but when the very first thing went flawed he had no again up plan,” he stated.

“The easy act of skidding on an icy street derailed his brutal enterprise.”