A sexual predator who killed a mother of 11 while on release from prison has been convicted of murder 36 years later after a DNA breakthrough.
Graham McGill, a 22-year-old convicted rapist, was on release from HMP Edinburgh in September 1984 when he met Mary McLaughlin in a pub and strangled her at her home in Partick, Glasgow.
McLaughlin, 58, had enjoyed a night out drinking and playing dominoes at different bars and was last seen leaving for a chip shop six days before her body was found. She had been throttled with a dressing gown cord, the High Court in Glasgow was told, but the case went unsolved despite dozens of lines of inquiry.
McGill, now 59, was found guilty yesterday thanks to modern DNA analysis that placed him at the flat. Genetic material on her dress, a knot in the dressing gown belt, a cigarette end and a bra all matched McGill, some of it with a “one in a billion” chance of error, the court was told.
McGill, who had sat hunched in the dock in a blue raincoat since the trial began on Tuesday, showed no reaction as he was convicted of murder.
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The jury removed a reference in the charge that the former welder had removed McLaughlin’s clothing with intent to rape.
McGill’s ex-wife, Suzanne Russell, had told the court that in 1988, before their marriage, he confessed to killing a woman because he “just wanted to know what it felt like”.
“He said he was shocked at how long it took to actually murder her,” she said. “I didn’t believe him . . . he was threatening me because he didn’t want me breaking up with him. He said if I ever told anyone he would kill me. He said if I ever repeated it or ever tried to leave him, that’s what would happen.”
She said that McGill said he was not worried about being caught because McLaughlin “didn’t have anybody”.
In 1981 McGill was convicted of rape and jailed for six years. He was released in 1984 as part of a “training for freedom” initiative, police said at a briefing before the trial.
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Martin Cullen, 60, one of McLaughlin’s sons, said he was relieved that justice had been delivered. He gave a thumbs up to reporters as he left the court yesterday afternoon.
Cullen had told the trial that he discovered his mother’s body after kicking down the door to investigate “the most horrible smell you will smell in your life” at her third-floor flat in Crathie Court, Laurel Street.
He said: “My partner went in and came out screaming. I went to the end of the hall and I could not go any further.” McLaughlin was found dead on her bed.
The court was told that she had been well known in Partick. Alex Prentice QC, for the prosecution, said: “You might form the impression she was someone perhaps a little lonely, someone who would go out and meet with people to gain some happiness in her life. People went back to her flat, it was part of her trusting nature.”
McGill was also sentenced to life in 1999 for an attack on a woman but released on licence in 2007, the court was told. The previous convictions were not shared with the jury.
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He was arrested in Glasgow in December 2019. Detective Superintendent Suzanne Chow said that he was “shell-shocked” and “certainly wasn’t expecting the police to be chapping on his door”.
McGill is expected to be sentenced to life in prison on May 18.