Convicted killer Angus Sinclair jailed for 37 years for World's End murders

Angus Sinclair, who has spent more than half his life in jail, will be 106 before he can apply for parole after today's record sentencing.

Convicted killer and paedophile Angus Sinclair has been jailed for a minimum of 37 years for the rape and murder of two teenage girls in Scotland in 1977.

Christine Eadie and Helen Scott, both 17, were brutally killed after a night-out at Edinburgh's World's End pub on October 15 1977.

The prosecution is the first under changes to Scotland's double jeopardy law which meant he could be retried for their murders after the court case against him collapsed seven years ago.

ITV News Correspondent Damon Green reports:

Judge Lord Matthews described Sinclair as a "dangerous predator" who has "not displayed one ounce of remorse" for the murders, in which the victims were bound and strangled with their own underwear.

The killings became known as the 'World's End' murders after the Edinburgh pub in which the victims had visited on the night they died. Credit: Crown Office/PA Wire

The girls' bodies were discovered in East Lothian the day after their deaths. They had been dumped in remote locations around five miles apart from each other.

Angus Sinclair, seen in 1977, the year of Christine Eadie and Helen Scott's murders. Credit: Crown Office/PA Wire

The change to Scotland's double jeopardy law in 2011 meant Sinclair could be retried for the teenagers' murders after the court case against him collapsed seven years ago.

The serial rapist, who has been in jail for more than 30 years, was convicted of carrying out the attacks with his brother-in-law Gordon Hamilton, who died in 1996.

The jury of nine women and six men - who were unaware of Sinclair's previous offences - took less than two-and-a-half hours to convict him unanimously of both charges after a five-week trial at the High Court in Livingston.

Morain Scott, the father or victim Helen Scott, hailed Sinclair's conviction as "justice" but said he would never get "closure" for his daughter's murder.

Helen Scott's brother Kevin thanked police and prosecutors for the "painstaking" and "meticulous" work that had led to a conviction in a case that remained one of Scotland's highest-profile unsolved crimes for decades.

Morain Scott addressed the media outside Livingston Sheriff Court after Sinclair's guilty verdict and sentencing. Credit: David Cheskin/PA Wire

Sinclair was just 16 when he strangled seven-year-old Catherine Reehill in Glasgow in 1961.

He later pleaded guilty to a charge of culpable homicide and served six years.In 1982 he was convicted at Edinburgh's High Court of a string of sex attacks on 11 young girls, including three rapes.

He was later given a life sentence in 2001 - while still in prison - for the murder of 17-year-old Mary Gallacher, who was raped and stabbed in Glasgow in 1978.

Sinclair is still suspected of at least three more unsolved murders.