March 2012

Killer in the Castle – Archives

DUMBARTON sex killer Robert Gemmill was compared with Scotland’s worst mass murderer, Peter Manuel.

The hollow-cheeked gardener who was raised in the town was recognised as a psychpoath from the age of 16.

Yet Gemmill who had spent 14 years in mental hospitals and previously attacked four young women, was FREED before he carried out the ghoulish slaughter of a millionaire’s daughter.

Pretty Lynda Jane Walters was found stabbed to death in the grounds of a luxury castle hotel in 1974.

The English schoolgirl who was holidaying in Scotland with parents, June and Michael, had been stabbed TWELVE times with a sheath knife wielded by maniac Gemmill.

The wealthy guests at Stonefield Castle Hotel, Tarbert, Argyll, had no idea what terrible secrets were hidden by the monster in their midst.

The gardener and handyman was a notorious sexual sadist who got his kicks attacking women.

He had been held for eight years in maximum security State Hospital, Carstairs, Lanarkshire.

But sadly for millionaire supermarket owner Michael Walters and his family, doctors had decided Gemmill was cured and released him.

After staying with his family in Dumbarton, he moved out and was working at the hotel in 1978 when the Walters arrived for their annual break.

Among the laughing, happy party was Michael’s pretty blonde-haired daughter Lynda-Jayne.

The group were there to enjoy themselves, but it would not be long before joy would turn to horror.

When her parents went off to visit an ancient Campbell burial ground, Lynda-Jayne chose to stay behind, going for a walk in the hotel grounds from which she would never return.

Her frantic family and the entire staff of the hotel helped police and volunteers to search for her. They were joined in the hunt by Gemmill.

Her blood spattered body was discovered just 150 yards from the main door of the hotel. In the words of a sickened policeman, the teenager had been butchered and stabbed at least a dozen times.

Detectives quickly focused their inquiries on

32-year-old Gemmill after checking a hotel staff list and uncovering his sordid background.

He had been just 16 when he was sent to a remand home for assaulting a girl. A year later he was packed off to a psychiatric hospital after assaulting a younger girl and older woman.

After being freed from there he attacked a pregnant social worker and was ordered by a court to be detained in Carstairs.

Gemmill was originally accused of murdering Lynda-Jayne but, after hearing from psychiatrists about his mental state, the Crown agreed to reduce the charge to culpable homicide.

At the High Court in Oban he claimed he was innocent and had found her body after hearing screams.

He said he had spotted a stranger in black hurrying away holding a knife but was so horrified by his discovery he was unable to tell anyone.

And he said police had concocted a confession he was said to have made.

The jury took just 15 minutes to find him guilty.

A psychiatrist told the court Gemmill’s condition was virtually untreatable and although he suffered from a personality disorder he was still sane.

As grief-stricken Michael Walters broke down, Lord Kincraig, sentenced Gemmill to be detained indefinitely.

The judge said: “Your conviction of this horrible crime raises again the question as to whether persons like you who have exhibited vicious, sadistic tendencies in the past should ever be liberated.”