Victim's son reveals 30-year battle to keep Thomas McCulloch locked up

EXCLUSIVE: THE family of one of axe murderer Thomas McCulloch's victims have revealed their desperate 30-year battle to keep him locked up.


Brutal McCulloch slaughtered nurse Neil McLellan and two others during a break-out at the state mental hospital at Carstairs in 1976.

For the first time Neil's son John and his widow Marion have unveiled their private letters to the parole board - highlighting the family's torment and battles with depression over McCulloch's crimes and possible permanent release.

John, 54, and Marion, 82, have been living in fear after McCulloch's arrival in Dumbarton - where they often go shopping.

Evil McCulloch was driven from his new bolthole on Wednesday by a mob of angry neighbours.

Around 40 locals staged a protest outside the killer's temporary home when he turned up for his latest visit.

John said: "McCulloch's murder of my father has cast a shadow over us every single day for the last 34 years.

"It's something we can never escape from. Every time I have to fill in an insurance form, it asks about parents and I have to fill in how my dad died.

"At the time of my dad's death, McCulloch said that he gets an uncontrollable urge to kill and he can't stop himself.

"How quickly people forget. For years he was like Hannibal Lecter and now he is supposedly some model prisoner. He is sneaky and manipulative - all traits of a psychopath.

"I was horrified to read in the Sunday Mail that he was in Dumbarton as we go shopping there all the time.

"I have lost count of the number of times I have driven past the road where they have been keeping him.

"My mum and I could be coming out of Asda in Dumbarton and walk right into the path of McCulloch. It's a horrific situation but it could now easily happen.

"We are now on edge and just don't know who we will bump into. He has made our life a misery and robbed me of my dad - yet he is now walking around free.

"I have had to be my mother's carer ever since my dad's murder.

"Her life was devastated by what happened on November 30, 1976 and she has suffered from depression ever since.

"There are times when I would come home and find that she had tried to take her own life by drowning in the bath.

"I am an only child and I had to put my career and life on hold to take care of her.

"Our family are outraged by this. Every year we are asked by the parole board about what we think about McCulloch and his release.

"They just seem to have totally ignored what we think.

"The authorities just have to look at the scenes in Dumbarton to see that, in the interests of public order, he should never be set free in Scotland."

John's letter to the Parole Board of Scotland was sent in May, months before McCulloch was given a new home in Dumbarton.

He wrote: "Irrespective of the decision of the Parole Board, my mother and I will continue to suf fer our sentence because we have no choice.

"Years ago Thomas McCulloch had a choice but yet he chose to murder three people.

"Newspaper reports about him and their feedback indicate that he is still one of the most unwanted and abhorrent prisoners currently within the Scottish prison system.

"No community wants him in their midst and I certainly would find it difficult to be friendly towards him if we were ever to meet.

"In the interests of public order, he should never be set free in Scotland.

"To ensure public safety an preserve the public's faith in the justice system, he deserves to die in prison as Lord Dunpark - who sentenced McCulloch in 1977 - intended."

Marion also described her 34 years of hell since the bloodbath at Carstairs.

She said: "I will never forget the night Neil was murdered.

"We heard the siren from the hospital and knew something was wrong.

"I got more worried when Neil never called to say that he was OK.

"Staff from the hospital came to tell me what happened and I just screamed for what seemed like hours.

"They said that I shouldn't go and see him but I had to. His skull was bashed in and I could not count how many stab wounds he had on him.

"Words can't describe it. I knew not to touch him because it was a crime scene but I just knelt down beside him. The next time I saw him he was in his coffin.

"McCulloch is the lowest of the low and yet he is being allowed to walk about and enjoy the fresh air like a normal person. I will never forgive or forget what he has done."

Last night , the Parole Board of Scotland said they did not comment on individual prisoners.


THE horrified parents of McCulloch wrote a heartfelt apology to his victim's family just days after his rampage.

McCulloch's father John penned the two-page private letter expressing their disgust at their son's murder of nurse Neil in 1976.

Neil's son John and widow Marion kept the letter for 34 years and have allowed the document to be published here for the first time.

Neil and Marion knew the McCullochs - who stayed in Parkhall, Clydebank, at the time - from their frequent visits to their son at the state mental hospital.

The letter says: "I hope you won't regard my writing you at this time an intolerable intrusion into the realm of your private grief but Mrs McCulloch and myself feel we must try somehow to convey to you the deep sorrow we feel for you in this, your time of great trial.

"We know you will never be able in your heart of hearts to forgive our son for the part he played in the tragic events of this week but he is our son and we still love him while abhorring the means adopted to achieve his ends.

"We remember with gratitude the many kindnesses extended by you and your late husband to Mrs McCulloch and myself. In closing, we would once again express our deepest sympathy to you and trust that God in his all embracing love and grace sustains you through the days that lie ahead."