October 2007
Freed To Kill
THE pals were in festive mood. They were happy-go-lucky teenagers with not a care in the world.
Outside the theatre, they said their farewells and went their separate ways. They’d had a great time. Pantos have jokes for kids and jokes for adults.
At 16 years of age, on the cusp of adulthood, they both got the nudge-nudge, wink-wink jokes. All harmless fun.
Later that night, Mhairi Julyan’s family sat and fretted. She hadn’t come home long after she said she would.
The police were notified and were concerned.
The next afternoon, a policeman stumbled into a scene from hell. In a disused coalbunker in a local bus garage, eyes started up at him. Dead eyes.
Mhairi Julyan was naked, her bra stuffed into her mouth and her blouse wrapped tightly round her neck. She had been raped, assaulted and strangled.
She was found yards from her home. True to her word, she had been heading home on time.
The cops concluded the killer had seen her leave her friends, stalked her through Kilmarnock streets and just as she was reaching safety, pulled her into the dark of the bus garage.
Mhairi had 47 separate injuries. She had fought for her life and her killer had punished her with a severe beating.
It was December 1995 and Kilmarnock had a sex killer on the loose.
Kilmarnock isn’t without its problems. For years, its courts had some of the highest turnover and jailing rates in Europe. But this was different. Everyone was out to catch the culprit.
Strathclyde Police pulled out all the stops. They knew that they had to catch this man quickly before he struck again.
Wide searches, hundreds of interviews, appeals for witnesses turned up nothing. The Daily Record offered a £10,000 reward. Still no leads.
The police had one piece of possible useful information – the killer’s DNA found at the scene.
They set about DNA testing every man in the area aged between 15 and 35, an estimated 20,000 men.
It was one of the biggest exercises of its kind at the time and it turned up trumps.
Local man Gavin McGuire, 43, was arrested. Local police wondered why they hadn’t gone to his door before.
They knew the truth about him and there was a lot to know.
Even as a child, he had been a nasty piece of work who liked to to torture animals, especially torching pigeons.
In 1977, he was jailed for 10 years for a double rape. Shortly after he was freed, in 1986, he had attempted to rape a young woman in Saltcoats.
But there was worse than that.
He had thrown that victim into Saltcoats harbour and stood watching, waiting for her to drown. Not just a rapist but also a sadist.
Somehow, his young victim managed to stay afloat in the freezing water for hours. She survived and McGuire was jailed for another 10 years.
IN a revelation that would shock all of Scotland, the arresting cops realised that McGuire had only been out of jail for 19 days when he killed Mhairi.
In years to come, the case would be one of those influencing stricter sentencing and supervision of all sex offenders. The changes came too late for young Mhairi.
Without knowing about McGuire’s history of offending, the jury were convinced of his guilt by young Alan Turnbull QC.
It was one of Turnbull’s early notable successes before he went on to prosecute in trials such as the “Murdered or Missing” Arlene Fraser case and the mass murder of Lockerbie.
The judge, Lord Clyde, described the murder as “an atrocity without mercy” and jailed him for 30 years, a massive sentence at that time. Now fully appraised of his background of terrible offences, Clyde made it clear that McGuire should never be released.
In 2002, under the new European human rights laws, McGuire applied to have his minimum period in jail set.
In spite of everything that was known about this man’s life of sexual violence, his sentence was reduced from 30 years to 22.
After the decision, Lord Drummond said that it shouldn’t be seen as a reduction on the original sentence but “the maximum that can now be imposed”.
It still remains with the parole board to decide when McGuire will be released.
There are many good Kilmarnock folk who hope that is never.
May 1996
Mhairi Julyan murder; THE SCHOOLBOY WHO BECAME A MONSTER
Evil Gavin McGuire was a boy deviant and petty thief who turned into a woman-hating monster.
His roll of dishonour was already taking shape at 14 when he torched his beloved pigeons after pouring petrol over their hut and setting it alight.
McGuire, who then pulled a similar stunt with rabbits, just stood there laughing.
Pals who saw his career in crime escalate to sexual assault, then rape, knew that one day he would murder.
A boyhood friend said: “We all knew it had to happen eventually.
“They must never let him out because he will do it again.”
McGuire was born a week before Christmas Day in 1958 – the first son of Jimmy and Nettie McGuire.
Little did Nettie know as she cradled her baby in her arms that almost exactly 37 years later he would destroy a family’s Christmas forever.
As a toddler Gavin would be seen running around the back door of his council house home in Stevenston, Ayrshire, playing with his father’s pigeons.
Jimmy had a steady job as a labourer in the steel industry in nearby Glengarnock but money was tight.
The McGuires would often argue and eventually they split.
In 1987 Jimmy, only 52, died in comparative squalor in Kilbirnie, Ayrshire.
Gavin attended the funeral handcuffed to prison officers from Peterhead, where he was serving time for rape.
As a five-year-old Gavin started Hayocks Primary School in Stevenston, in August 1964.
A classmate said: “He was a loner - he would sit by himself and didn’t mix.”
By the time he had reached primary seven, McGuire was getting involved in petty crimes like shoplifting.
In his early teens he had started stealing cars and breaking into houses. He was soon sent to various children’s homes, List D schools, borstal and young offenders institutions.
As a result he was seldom seen by classmates at secondary school - Auchenharvie Academy in Stevenston.
A former pupil said: “I wish they could string him up for what he has done.
“I remember him torching those poor animals.
“He showed no remorse for what he had done. He is really evil.”
Another schoolpal said: “He was always a loner. Even as a kid he sat himself. He was never one of the boys.”
In 1976 and still only 17, McGuire raped a 15-year-old schoolgirl and sexually assaulted another. He then committed another attack on a woman and when he was out on bail on all three, he raped another woman.
He was jailed at the High Court in Ayr for 10 years in 1977.
But he was released on licence in October 1983.
He was back in court and fined for assault and robbery in 1984.
McGuire was handed another 10- year sentence in 1986 for the callous rape and attack on Doris Thomson at Saltcoats Harbour.
Again, he was released early.
By now he was one of the most perverse and evil men in Scotland.
He stood trial for the rape and assault of a prostitute in 1994 and was cleared.
By this time he had been housed in the tough Longbar estate in Kilbirnie.
A neighbour said: “He was a real strange guy. He would cycle around on his racing bike and would always stare at people. He was a real weirdo.”
McGuire had few real friends but one who occasionally hung around with him wants nothing more to do with him.
The friend, who asked not to be identified, said: “When he got out after the first rape in 1977 I used to go out drinking with him.
“Everybody is entitled to the benefit of the doubt. Everyone is allowed one mistake. But after the one in 1986 no one would speak to him again.”
One of his former pals from Stevenston said: “When we were about 15 or 16 we used to buy drink and go up to the castle.
“Gavin would come with us but whenever there was a mention of women he seemed to disappear.
“When I think about it now it was as if he was afraid or shy of women.”
And another said: “The first time he got lifted for rape I was surprised.
“But after he was released the second time all the guys in town said it was only a matter of time before some poor b***** got it.
“He should never have been released. He is a dangerous, dangerous guy.”
Shortly before his arrest for the murder of Mhairi, McGuire moved into a tiny bedsit in Canal Street, Saltcoats.
Only the thinnest of walls separated him from 25-year-old Alexis Robertson.
Alexis shivered as she recalled the horror of learning her new neighbour was a murderer and rapist.
She said: “I can’t sleep, I am petrified staying here on my own. I shiver every time I think about it.”
