Johnny Miller, who was the liaison officer for the family of his victim Barry Wallace, told how he confronted Beggs in the bowels of Edinburgh’s historic High Court.

Detective reveals how he confronted Limbs in the Loch killer William Beggs in his cell after he was convicted of murder

by · Daily Record

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A MURDER detective has revealed William Beggs started screaming and trashing his cell after he deliberately taunted the Limbs in the Loch killer who had just been convicted of murder.

In an extraordinary interview, Johnny Miller, who was the liaison officer for the family of his victim Barry Wallace, told how he confronted Beggs in the bowels of Edinburgh’s historic High Court.

William Beggs murdered 18-year-old Kilmarnock supermarket worker Barry in December 1999 after luring him back to his flat in the town.

Twenty-five years after one of the country’s most dangerous serial predators was caged, the former officer said: “At that minute, I have got to be honest, I’m not proud of it but my policeman’s hat went out the window and plain old Johnny Miller fae Kilmarnock came up.

“There was a heated exchange, a very heated exchange. Suffice to say Beggs went into his cell screaming like a banshee.

“He was flinging his food about and he tried to take some of his clothes off.”

Beggs murdered 18-year-old Kilmarnock supermarket worker Barry in December 1999 after luring him back to his flat in the town.

Barry was reported missing by his worried family after a night out. When his body parts were discovered in Loch Lomond and washed up elsewhere cops knew they had a deranged killer on the loose.

Talking in a new BBC Scotland series about the murder, experienced CID officer Johnny told how he had been assigned to look after Barry’s devastated parents Ian and Christine.

He and a female colleague had to break the horrific news to them that their son’s head had been discovered on a beach in Troon, Ayrshire, and asked Ian if he would be willing to attend an identification of Barry.

He said: “I was taking Ian up to the mortuary in Glasgow only to see his son’s head. I think Ian identifying his son was one of the bravest things I have ever seen.”

Barry Wallace who was murdered and dismembered by William Beggs

Beggs. now 61, was ordered to serve minimum of 20 years in prison after a 17-day trial in October 2001 and despite parole hearings is unlikely to be released any time soon.

Former Detective Superintendent John Geates, who led the probe into Barry’s murder said: “The murder of Barry Wallace was the most shocking thing I had ever been involved in.”

“I got a phone call to say there had been a human head washed up on Barassie Beach and I made my way straight there. I then walked over to where the head was. From my knowledge of pictures of him I was fairly confident that’s Barry Wallace.

“I can picture the whole scene as if it was yesterday.”

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Beggs, then 36, is believed to have dumped Barry’s head in the sea while travelling on a ferry home to see his parents to Northern Ireland.

The senior officer would later come in for criticism for not arresting Beggs sooner when details of previous offences became public.

Beggs, who was born in Northern Ireland, had been convicted of a serious of horrific and violent attacks on men around the country.

At Teesside Crown Court in Middlesbrough he was jailed for the 1987 murder of Barry Oldham, whose body he had attempted to dismember, but walked free on a legal technicality two years later.

In 1991, Beggs who by then had moved to Ayrshire, was sentenced to six years for attacking Brian McQuillan with a razor at his flat. The retired officer said: “We had no evidential link at that point between him and Barry.

“We had to make a compelling case that somehow tied him to the murder of Barry Wallace and get a warrant to search his house.” Barry had been on a Christmas night out with Tesco colleagues when he accepted a lift home from stranger Beggs.

At one point the murder probe team had up to 80 officers and many refused to go home.

Detective Alan Cotton said: “I remember people working without overtime payment.

“People were so invested in finding out what had happened to Barry.”

Geates said: “We never lost the support of Barry’s mum and dad or his brother. I promised from day one I would never tell them a lie and I kept that promise.”

The eureka moment for the police came when they found Barry’s blood in Beggs’s flat. They also found the blood of dozens of others, many they could not indentify.

Geates said: “If anyone ever gets parole it should be because they have been rehabilitated and understand how their actions were wrong and I don’t know if that’s the case here.”

●Limbs in the Loch: Catching a Killer, BBC Scotland, 10pm, tonight, when all episodes will become available on iPlayer.

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