Get the stories that matter to you sent straight to your inbox with our daily newsletter. Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Scotland’s leading forensic scientist has offered to lead a cold case team into the unsolved rape and murder of schoolgirl Pamela Hastie.

Professor Angela Gallop was one of the first people to cast scientific doubt on the conviction of the man who had been jailed and later cleared of killing Pamela.

Prof Gallop, 69, who has worked on some of the country’s most difficult murder cases, said writing a book about her lifetime’s work led her to revisit Pamela’s murder.

And, 38 years after the killing, she believes a new team of forensic experts reinvestigating the case could crack it.

(Image: Daily Record)

Prof Gallop said: “I do think that if you went back to look at Pamela’s clothing there would be something there in relation to DNA.

“Every contact really does leave a trace – it’s just that sometimes no one finds it or doesn’t find it at that time.

“I have suggested looking at any superficial debris that might have been recovered from Pamela’s body, especially the exposed parts.

“The debris could contain important transferred traces that might give the police some other avenues for investigation.

(Image: Daily Record)

“I would be happy to get a forensic team together and brief them on my knowledge of this case, what I did and saw at the time of my review and help them in any cold case investigation.”

Pamela, 16, was attacked on her way home from school in November 1981 and her body was discovered in Rannoch Woods near her home in Johnstone, Renfrewshire.

Teenager Raymond Gilmour was arrested for the murder and confessed.

He was convicted the following year but claimed he had been coerced into admitting the crime.

In 2007, after 20 years in jail, the appeal court ruled the original trial verdict unsafe and released him.

Prof Gallop, who helped to solve the killings of Rachel Nickell, Stephen Lawrence and later Damilola Taylor, was asked in 1994 by Gilmour’s legal team to take a look at the forensic reports of the case.

At the time, she was given no access to any physical evidence but was allowed to comb through detailed forensic reports, including the post-mortem.

She said it left her deeply concerned that vital forensic evidence may have been missed.

Prof Gallop said: “Something that had been noted by one of the police officers involved in the original investigation was a footwear mark on the ground near where Pamela’s school books had been discovered.

(Image: Roland Leon Sunday Mirror)

“Although a photo had been taken of what might have proved to be a vital piece of evidence, no attempt seemed to have been made to compare it with any of Gilmour’s shoes.

“Also mentioned in the forensic report were a purple nylon fibre and three hairs that were found on the branch of a tree at the scene.

“The fact that all three of the hairs were apparently like Pamela’s suggested she had come into contact with the branch at some point.

“So if the fibre was associated with the hairs and, assuming it hadn’t come from Pamela herself, one obvious explanation would be that it had come from her attacker. But that was another loose end that appeared not to have been followed up.”

It is not known what evidence from the time of the original murder investigation remains for potential future forensic testing.

Prof Gallop, a forensic scientist for 45 years, has pulled together details of her most famous cases in her book, When The Dogs Don’t Bark.

The title refers to the alarm bells she said should ring when forensic evidence is missing and how that can be just as important as when it’s found.

She said the case against Gilmour, now 56, is one of the best examples of “the dogs not barking”.

No evidence of any physical contact between Gilmour and Pamela was found at the crime scene. Prof Gallop said: “During the close contact that would have been involved in the assault prior to Pamela’s death, textile fibres would inevitably have been transferred from her clothing to her assailant’s and vice versa.

“The conclusion I came to after considering all the reports and other information from the original investigation was that there were holes in the scientific evidence to raise serious doubts about the safety of Raymond Gilmour’s conviction.”

(Image: Unknown)

In the years since the conviction was overturned, a number of serial killers have been suggested as possible suspects for Pamela’s murder, including Peter Tobin and Robert Black.

The first crime scene Prof Gallop attended was the murder of 18-year-old Helen Rytka in February 1978 – one of the victims of Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe.

She went on to work on cases including the killing of Jamie Bulger, the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path murders and the hanging of Italian banker Roberto Calvi.

Though she started her career as part of the UK government’s Forensic Science Service, helping police forces across England and Wales, she went on to set up her own forensic services laboratories.

She is now also strategic director for forensic science at Strathclyde University.

Prof Gallop, who was awarded a CBE in 2015, will appear at the Edinburgh Science Festival on April 9 to give a talk on the advances in forensics that have influenced her work.

She said: “I have been very lucky to have worked as part of some amazing teams – forensic science is very much a team effort.

“A forensic scientist has to keep an open mind about everything and let only the facts and evidence guide you.

“You might think you understand what happened at a crime scene but then you dig a little further and discover it is not quite so clear-cut.

“Some of the things you see are horrendous but you are part of a team that has a job to do so you can’t allow yourself to get emotional and have to concentrate on knowing your work might help keep other people safe.

“One thing that helps tremendously is that, in my experience, every dead person I have seen at a crime scene always looks as if they are at peace.”

Neither Police Scotland nor the Hastie family responded to our requests for a comment.