Where There is Evil Read Free

corners. ‘Moira – Still No News’,
‘Coatbridge Girl Still Untraced’, ‘Girl Still Missing’.
    On 18 May the
Herald
reported that a photo of Moira would appear on television, some three months after she had vanished. The police had been urged to have it broadcast before, but had
felt that the BBC would not transmit it as ‘It would serve no useful purpose’.
    Two days later, when the picture had been shown, it was reported that the television appeal had brought no response.

Chapter Two
    As time dragged by with no news, faith in Coatbridge Burgh Police plummeted. Just days after Moira’s disappearance, a dinner was held in honour of the retiring Chief
Constable Daniel McLauchlan OBE. The new Chief, Charles McIntosh, was left with a hot potato. In his statement to the
Scotsman
of 26 February, he said that he was in command of the
investigation and appealed for witnesses who might have seen Moira on the Saturday to come forward. From their statements, he said, perhaps a complete picture of her movements on the day of her
disappearance might emerge. To co-ordinate the inquiry, he promoted Detective Sergeant John F. MacDonald to Uniformed Inspector in charge of the Coatbridge CID.
    The
Airdrie and Coatbridge Advertiser
carried a photograph of the new man, and I can remember my father discussing these promotions: we lived opposite the police station and he was on
nodding terms with all the officers, who in those days jumped on and off the buses and who had an arrangement with drivers where they expected to travel free. In return, they were prepared to look
the other way when problems arose regarding the staff of Baxter’s Bus Service.
    Whether it was because of the turmoil of McLauchlan’s departure, McIntosh’s arrival, or MacDonald’s promotion, or whether the announcement in the middle of the search for Moira
that the Chief Constable for Lanarkshire was coming to visit the local force, there is no doubt that the search for the missing child became unco-ordinated. In 1993, a former police officer, now
living in Canada, telephoned the Scottish
Sunday Mail
to say he recalled how disillusioned he had been by his time spent with the Coatbridge Burgh Police. Contrary to what was being said
in the newspapers at the time about areas being searched two and three times, he had felt uneasy then and for years afterwards about the attitude of some of those in charge. Superiors, he said,
were more concerned about getting offices spick and span and ensuring filing cabinets were up to date because of the impending visit of the highest-ranking officer in the county. A distinct lack of
urgency had been shown about Moira, and he had overheard several men shrug off her disappearance with the words, ‘Och, the lassie’s likely had a row wi’ her mammy and went off.
She’ll turn up soon enough.’ The group of officers he had been with were told not to search anywhere beyond the town boundary.
    Furthermore, egos were bruised, when because of lack of headway and the Andersons’ view that the local police were not experienced in dealing with missing persons, the Glasgow CID joined
the case. They were not overwhelmed by help. They briefly linked Peter Manuel, who went down in criminal history as Scotland’s most infamous serial killer, to Moira, and her name was
mentioned when he conducted his own defence at his trial in May 1958. Manuel indicated that two detectives had said to him after an identification parade that they were going to pin eight murders
on him, including ‘the little girl who disappeared in Coatbridge last year’. But they had to rule out Manuel: he had been in prison at the time of Moira’s disappearance,
completing a stretch for breaking into Hamilton colliery. He might have been in the clear about Moira, but he went on to gain further notoriety as the last person hanged in Scotland.
    Other members of the public share the view that the search was fragmented and lacked foresight. A local man