World's End Killer Angus Sinclair Drops Appeal Against Convictions
World's End Killer Angus Sinclair has abandoned his appeal against his convictions for raping and murdering two school friends almost 37 years ago.
The 70-year-old raped and strangled 17-year-olds Helen Scott and Christine Eadie after a night out at the World's End pub on Edinburgh's Royal Mile in October 1977.
Sinclair - who was the first person in Scotland to be retried for the same crime after an acquittal - was handed a 37 year sentence by judge Lord Matthews in November 2014.
He launched an appeal earlier this year to have his convictions quashed.
But today (Wednesday 12th August), defence advocate Ian Duguid QC told the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh that his client no longer wanted his convictions set aside.
Mr Duguid told judge Lady Smith that Sinclair still wanted appeal judges to reduce the 37 year sentence given to him at the High Court in Livingston.
He added: "The appeal is to continue only in respect of sentencing."
The jury at Sinclair's trial last year took just two hours to conclude that he carried out the murders of Miss Scott and Miss Eadie with his late brother in law Gordon Hamilton, who died in 1996 without facing justice.
The two teenagers were killed after they got into Sinclair's caravanette outside the city centre pub where they had been drinking on Saturday October 15 1977.
They were found dead six miles apart in the East Lothian countryside the following day.