World’s End trial: Friend ‘saw accused with teens’

The World's End pub in Edinburgh, where Christine Eadie and Helen Scott were last seen alive. Picture: TSPL

Jackie Thomson identified Angus Sinclair as one of the two men she saw with Christine Eadie and Helen Scott at the World’s End pub in Edinburgh.

Sinclair, 69, has pleaded not guilty to assaulting, raping and murdering the 17-year-olds between 15 and 16 October, 1977, between the pub and locations in East Lothian.

Ms Thomson, who was with the girls on the night they went missing and were killed, was giving evidence on the third day of Sinclair’s trial at the High Court in Livingston yesterday.

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She told the court that she and another friend, Tony, had left Christine and Helen in the World’s End with two men at around 10:45pm on Saturday, 15 October, 37 years ago.

Prosecuting, Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland said Ms Thomson had been shown a series of 12 photographs of men by the police in 2004.

Mr Mulholland said she was shown the images to see if she could identify anyone who was one of the males she saw with the girls in the pub in 1977.

Pointing to Sinclair, he told the court Ms Thomson had identified the accused.

He asked: “How sure were you that this person on photo K, Angus Sinclair, was one of the two male persons?”

Ms Thomson replied: “In 1977 he looked quite a lot different – younger than that. It is hard to say because I had seen photos in the newspapers.”

Mr Mulholland asked her to answer the question directly, stating: “How sure were you?” She replied: “I was pretty sure, yeah.”

Ms Thomson told the court she had attended Firrhill High School with the girls.

She said they had socialised together at each other’s houses, listening to music and talking about make-up. Ms Eadie, she said, “loved the Osmonds”, while she and Ms Scott were fans of David Cassidy.

Ms Thomson said she had met Ms Scott on 15 October, 1977, some time between 6:30pm and 7pm and they had gone for a drink in the Mount Royal Hotel on Edinburgh’s Princes Street.

The two girls later met up with Ms Eadie and her flatmate, named Tony, she said.

The group of four went to the Grosvenor Bar on the city’s High Street, visiting six to eight different pubs before reaching the World’s End.

Ms Thomson told the court the girls had an alcoholic drink in each pub they visited.

Describing their arrival at the World’s End just before 10pm, she said: “It was packed. It was really, really busy – there was no place to sit, we had to stand. We went to the bar and got a drink.”

She continued: “After that, me and Tony went to the toilet. When we came back two men were sitting with Christine and Helen.”

Ms Scott and Ms Eadie sat down with the men, while Ms Thomson and Tony were standing talking to some people Tony knew, she said.

“Tony was offered to go to a party and I was asked and I said yes, I would go along.

“I asked Christine and Helen and they said they didn’t want to come along to the party.”

Ms Thomson said the girls had been “tipsy”, but asked if they were “rolling around drunk”, she replied: “No.”

Ms Thomson left the pub at around 10:45pm, leaving the two girls sitting next to each other, with one of the men on either side of them.

“I was quite content to leave them,” she said. “I always remember leaving, Helen just giving me a big smile.”

During cross-examination, Ian Duguid QC asked Ms Thomson about previous comments she had made to the police concerning the identification of Sinclair.

Mr Duguid also pressed Ms Thomson on Helen’s personal life. He said she had told the police that Helen had gone out with a man named John for around two weeks in 1977.

“I know she went out with Allan [Dixon, Helen’s boyfriend at the time] but they didn’t see much of each other,” Ms Thomson, 54, said.

Referring to John, Ms Thomson said she did not consider him to have been a boyfriend.

The trial continues.