18 year old Barry Wallace was out celebrating with friends over the Christmas festivities, when his vulnerability was exploited by sick pervert William Beggs.
The supermarket worker was celebrating with colleagues on a Christmas night out in Kilmarnock Scotland, on Saturday 4th December 1999. As many often do in these occasions Wallace drank a large amount of alcohol, leaving him drunk and staggering towards the town centre at around 1 am.
After being spotted by colleagues, he was given a lift into town and dropped behind Marks and Spencer’s in the town centre. From here the young man had a short but insignificant altercation with a friend, but the pair quickly made up.
He was last spotted by witnesses at 1.30 am at the entrance of EXPO nightclub. After this the man vanished. He did not return home, did not arrive for work on Monday and was reported missing to the police.
Coincidently on Monday the 6th, underwater search units from Central Scotland police were undergoing diving exercises in Loch Lomond, between 10 and 10.30am. During the training exercise, two plastic bin bags were found containing human remains. One of which contained part of an arm, and a hand, and one contained a foot, and part of a leg.
Not surprisingly this prompted further searches and on Tuesday another hand, and part of an arm were found. The following day parts of a leg were found. And on Friday 10th part of a lower leg, and foot were found near Balmaha Pier on the Loch.
On Wednesday the 15th December 1999 a woman was out walking her dog along Barassie Beach in Troon Scotland. Her dog drew her attention to a bag on the beach, which contained the remains of a human head that had likely washed up from the sea.
After a further search operation in Loch Lomond a torso was found on the 8th of January 2000.
Subsequently D.N.A evidence proved that the remains at the loch and the head at the beach were that of 18 year old Barry George Wallace. And the post-mortem results told a harrowing story. The face was heavily bruised and the bones were fractured. The wrists and ankles had linear indents consistent with the use of handcuffs. One of the arms was punctured by a needle, and there was extensive damage to the anus.
Meanwhile a search warrant had been requested by police on the 16th of December 1999. This was after previous convictions by Kilmarnock resident William Beggs, had been flagged up on the computer system.
It was shown that Beggs had previously been convicted in the murder of Barry Oldham in 1987. Oldhams body was found on the North York moors after having his throat cut. Hauntingly, it appeared that in this case Beggs had tried to cut off the limbs of the body. At the time police said they had caught a serial killer in the making. Amazingly two years later the charge was overturned by the court of appeals, after it was ruled the judge had acted improperly, by allowing evidence of previous alleged attacks by Beggs.
After moving to Kilmarnock he was again jailed for another violent attack in 1991. After meeting Brian McQuillan at a gay club in Glasgow he took him back to his residence in Bellfield Kilmarnock. After spending the night together McQuillan woke up to Beggs slashing him with a knife. The terrified victim fearing for his life jumped through the flat window, and Beggs was arrested and later sentenced to 6 years in jail. However he was released after only 3 years.
Unsurprisingly this was a major factor in a warrant being accepted in the search of Mr Beggs flat in Bellfield Kilmarnock on 17th December 1999. Large quantities of blood were found of Barry Wallace, and many decorative fabrics such as carpets had been replaced. Distinct plastic bag were also found in the flat, which mirrored the bag which contained the head. This was a DFDS ferry carrier bag, which would also be of great importance in evidence to come.
Beggs upon hearing of the search of his flat escaped into Amsterdam, where he turned himself in after an international manhunt. He fought extradition but was sent back to the UK for trial.
In court it was shown that the defendant did not show up for work on the 6th of December and left work early on the 7th where he took a ferry from Troon to Northern Ireland. He returned to Stranraer Scotland on the 10th December, and went back to Bellfast the following day, returning to Troon on the 12th.
It was proven in court that William Beggs originally from Nothern Ireland had lured the drunken Wallace back to his flat - The same flat which the slashing attack took place. From here he was violently sexually assaulted, and murdered. Medical experts could not tell exactly how the young man died but there were visible signs of suffering as deep wrist wounds showed Wallace had struggled violently.
Beggs cut the body into eight pieces, dumping the limbs and torso in Loch Lomond. It was also surmised that he had thrown the head into the sea when travelling by Ferry between Troon and Belfast. The crime was dubbed the limbs in the loch murder by the media, and William Beggs was jailed for a minimum of 20 years. At the end of 2019 Beggs is eligible for parole.
During his time in jail he has made himself a nuisance with appeals to the disgust of the nation.
In March 2009 he appealed his conviction but was turned down. The following year he attempted to appeal to the Supreme Court which was also rejected.
In 2011 he appealed to have his sentence reduced. He argued his human rights had been breached, because court proceedings against him had taken so long. The case was rejected and Judge Lord Reed ruled the argument to be incompetent.
Sickeningly Beggs was awarded £4,800 in 2012 by the European Court of Human Rights, as it was ruled his human rights were breached, because it took more than 10 years for appeal proceeding.
In 2017 he requested a personal laptop to log his various appeals which was denied.
It seems that Beggs enjoys these twisted mind games, and he still torments residents of Kilmarnock to this day. The flat of horrors is still under ownership by him, despite neighbours appealing for it to be seized or sold. He has refused to sell the flat in which Wallace was murdered, and the property has increased significantly in value.
It is also understood that Beggs has been the victim of violence whilst serving in prison. After mocking the death of fellow prisoner Graham Meikle’s relative, he had boiling water thrown in his face by Meikle.
Now the perverted killer has the chance of parole at the end of 2019. We can only hope that for the good and safety of the world this sick twisted beast is kept behind bars.