Beggs a sexual predator, according to dead friend

The evidence came from a statement made to police by a man, now dead, who had got to know Beggs in the Edinburgh gay scene.

Beggs is alleged to have sodomised and murdered Barry Wallace, 18, of Cumbrae Drive, Kilmarnock, on 5 or 6 December, 1999.

It is said that in a flat in Doon Place, Bellfield, Kilmarnock, he placed handcuffs on the youth’s arms and legs, punched him on the face and punctured his arm with a needle.

The charge further states that Beggs dismembered the body and disposed of parts of it in Loch Lomond and in the sea at Barassie, Troon.

The court heard that Mr Wallace, a supermarket worker, had been on a night out with colleagues on 4 December.

He was seen in a drunken state in the early hours of the following morning in Kilmarnock town centre.

He was later reported missing by his parents after he failed to return home.

Detective Constable James Robertson, 34, said that during inquiries into Mr Wallace’s death, he was asked to go to Edinburgh on 21 March, 2000, to meet Kenneth Petrie, who had contacted the incident room in Kilmarnock.

The officer explained that Mr Petrie had died in February of this year.

He then read extracts from a statement which he said Mr Petrie had made at a police station in Edinburgh. Mr Petrie told the police he was gay and frequented the gay scene in Edinburgh, regularly attending the No 18 Sauna and the New Town Bar where he had got to know William Beggs, who lived in Kilmarnock.

The court heard earlier that Beggs was also known as Ian to his workmates.

"Ian discussed with me how he would rather pick up a guy from a straight pub as opposed to a gay pub," said Mr Petrie.

"I told him I could not do that as I was scared I would get assaulted. Ian said he would befriend them first.

"He said some of them would have quite a lot of drink in them. He said he would say, ‘Come back to my flat, there’s more drink.’

"Once he got them back to his flat, he would give them more .

"Once they were drunk, he would offer to share a bed with them or tell them they could sleep on the floor. After getting them into bed, Ian did not specify how he managed to have sex with them ... but the impression he gave ... that’s what I suppose happened.

"Ian said the guys he preferred were younger guys.

"Ian told me he liked to cruise early morning in an attempt to pick up young guys in his car."

Cross-examined by Donald Findlay, QC, for Beggs, Mr Robertson agreed that it was not possible to ask Mr Petrie whether he had been uncomfortable in the police station and would have said anything they wanted him to say, or that he had disliked Beggs for years and this was his chance to get back at him.

"What the jury is left with is your summary of what he said?" asked Mr Findlay.

"Since he is now deceased, that is correct," replied Mr Robertson who insisted that the statement accurately represented the information provided by Mr Petrie.

Mr Robertson told the court that Mr Petrie had contacted the incident room set up in the wake of Barry Wallace’s death and that the pair had arranged to meet at the New Town Bar.

Mr Robertson admitted that the date and time that the statement was given had been "omitted" from its front sheet.

The detective also admitted that the words in the statement "were not the way Mr Petrie uttered them".

However, he denied Mr Findlay’s suggestion that the statement was simply "a mixture of pub talk and a question and answer session at the police station".

The trial continues.