Detective REFUTES claim in unsolved murders of THREE Glasgow women

Anna Kenny, Hilda McAuley and Agnes Cooney fell victim after meeting their killer on nights out in Glasgow in late 1977.

The bodies of all three were later found in isolated country locations bound and gagged.

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There have since been allegations that key productions - including ligatures used to tie up the three victims - were lost by the former Strathclyde Police during an office move in the late 1990s.

The missing evidence claims were first made in 2014 and then repeated in a 2021 book on serial killer Angus Sinclair, below, called Gone Fishing.

The authors Chris Clark and Adam Lloyd also said there should be a public inquiry into their disappearance.

However Police Scotland yesterday told the Glasgow Times that it had no record of lost evidence and is still committed to solving the case.

Detective Chief Inspector Brian Geddes said: “The murders of Anna Kenny, Hilda McAuley and Agnes Cooney in Glasgow in 1977 remain unresolved, however, as with all unresolved cases, they are subject to review and any new information about their deaths will be investigated.

“We have no record that would indicate any productions were lost in any of these cases, however the way in which deaths are now investigated, and retention policy around productions and other items has improved from the 1970s.

"We now have access to a range of digital technology which allows us to record and store information in an accessible way.

"Police Scotland never considers cases closed and the passage of time is no barrier to the investigation of homicide cases.”

Anna Kenny 20, above, from the Gorbals, disappeared on August 5, 1977, after a night out at the Hurdy Gurdy pub in Lister Street, Townhead.

It was 20 months before Anna's remains were finally found in a makeshift grave in a remote part of Argyllshire by two shepherds in April 1979.

Hilda McAuley was battered, raped and strangled after leaving the Plaza ballroom in Govanhill on October 1, 1977.

The following day her body was found in woods near a lovers' lane 20 miles away at Langbank, Renfrewshire.

On December 2, 1977, Agnes Cooney, who worked in a children's home, went to the Clada Social Club in Westmoreland Street, Govanhill.

Agnes, who lived in Coatbridge, left the club alone and didn't tell her friend she was leaving.

Her mutilated body, bearing 26 stab wounds, was found two days later by a farmer near Caldercruix, Lanarkshire.

A cold case review in 2004 called Operation Trinity linked Angus Sinclair to the deaths of the three Glasgow women and the murders of 17-year-olds Helen Scott and Christine Eadie from Edinburgh.

DNA from the ligatures used in the murders of Helen and Christine identified Sinclair as the prime suspect.

Both women were murdered after a night at the World's End pub on Edinburgh's Royal Mile in October 1977.

In 2007 Sinclair was cleared of killing Helen and Christine at the High Court in Edinburgh after a judge ruled there wasn't enough evidence.

However, in 2014 he became the first person in Scotland to be retried for the same crime, following a change in the double jeopardy law.

This time Angus Sinclair was convicted of the double murder and given yet another life sentence.

However, he was never charged with the three Glasgow murders, despite their similarities to the World End killings.

In an interview in 2014, Agnes Cooney's sister Mary, then 56, said they had given up hope of getting any justice.

Sinclair died in 2019 in prison taking the secrets of any other murders he may have committed to his grave.

*Read the Glasgow Crime Story on the murders this Sunday.