A TRIPLE murderer who has been freed on compassionate grounds was today told by the widow of a victim: “I hope you live a long time – and suffer every minute.”
Callous Andrew Walker cold-bloodedly executed three army colleagues in a payroll robbery in 1985.
But after suffering a stroke he has been released to a care home.
Private John Thomson was one of the men shot dead by Royal Scots corporal Walker in the raid on Glencorse Barracks, Penicuik, Midlothian.
Private Thomson left behind a 19-year-old widow, Susan, and son, Bruce, who was a toddler at the time and has been left with no memory of his father.
Mrs Thomson, now 47, is furious that Walker has been shown mercy despite showing none to his victims.
She said today: “I hope the bastard lives a long long time – and suffers each and every minute.
“I am still suffering 26 years 11 months and 11 days later.
“No-one ever asks how we feel.”
Mrs Thomson, from Galashiels, Scottish Borders, is also angry that she only learned about the killer’s release in the media.
She asked: “Does no-one ever consider the utter devastation to the families to read this in the newspapers?
“The first I knew of this was reading it in the papers.
“My son is shattered.”
Private Thomson was forced to drive Walker and his comrades, one of whom had already been shot dead, to a site near a reservoir following the £19,000 raid.
Blood leaked from the Army Land Rover on to snow during the journey.
Gravity
Walker shot the second soldier, ordered Private Thomson to get the bodies out of the vehicle, and then executed the 25-year-old.
On trial, Walker claimed the killings had been carried out by the IRA but he was found guilty and sentenced to 30 years in jail.
Following a stroke in Shotts Prison in 2009 he was moved a hospital where he was kept under round-the-clock supervision.
Last month he was moved to a care home, and the Scottish Government confirmed this week he had been released on compassionate grounds.
Mrs Thomson, speaking two years ago, revealed the torment she had suffered since the murder of her husband.
She said: “I was only 19 when Johnny was killed but there’s not a day goes by that I don’t think about it.
“I couldn’t even go out in the snow for about 14 years after it happened because it just reminded me of that day.”
Recalling the horrific moment she learned of her husband’s murder, she added: “I remember sitting indoors watching television. Something came on the news and I just knew something had happened to Johnny.
She continued: “From that day I shut myself down. It was the only way I could cope.”
In a report after Walker was sentenced to 30 years in jail, judge Lord Grieve said: “A person who could bring himself to do what he did is not fit to live in a society which still regards itself as civilised.
“This was a calculated crime. The accused, if he was to achieve his purpose, had to kill.
“I am quite satisfied that the crime was carefully planned, and I am also quite sure that the substance of the evidence given byWalkerwas a tissue of lies.”
Another judge, Lord Reed, said the murders carried ‘exceptional gravity’.
In 2002,Walkerhad his sentence cut by three years at the Court of Appeal.
His lawyers argued that the 30-year sentence was ‘excessive’.
