BIBLE JOHN: COPS OPEN FRESH PROBE

DETECTIVE TEAM SUSPECTED THREE MEN KILLED WOMEN

- MARCELLO MEGA

A NEW probe has been launched into the infamous Bible John murders over allegations that police corruption might have helped to hide a killer.

The families of the three victims, all killed after night outs at Glasgow's Barrowland Ballroom, have welcomed the move but fear they won't get justice after 55 years.

Patricia Docker, 25, and Jemima MacDonald, 31, were murdered in February 1968 and August 1969, while Helen Puttock, 29, was killed in October 1969.

The dramatic disclosures provoking the new probe, named Operation Banyan by Police Scotland, revolve around Helen's murder.

Retired Detective Chief Inspector Jim McEwan and colleague Detective Constable Brian Hughes were part of a small team who conducted a review in 1996 of Helen's murder after her tights yielded DNA evidence.

It led to the exhumation of the body of John McInnes, a long-dead suspect in the case, with a view to testing whether his DNA would match that on Helen's tights as there had been a partial match to a family member.

The 1996 review established McInnes had been picked up two days after Helen's body was found but was never put in an ID parade and his name had been kept off all case files.

One of the detectives involved in the 1969 probe was McInnes's cousin, Jimmy McInnes. Another was Jimmy's pal, the revered detective Joe Beattie. All three men are now dead.

Police Scotland confirmed yesterday that they are looking into claims in a BBC Scotland podcast Bible John: Creation of a Serial Killer.

Relatives of the murdered women have been contacted by family liaison officers and informed that Operation Banyan, involving officers of the Major Crimes Unit, is now operating from Osprey House, Paisley.