A former cellmate of Carnoustie murderer Andrew Hunter has revealed what it was like spending 23 hours a day alone with the killer.
Derek Kinmond, 70, from Dundee, shared a cell in Perth Prison with Hunter – who strangled his pregnant wife to death before hiding her body in Fife woods – for three months while they were both incarcerated in 1988.
Derek has opened up on the time he spent with the killer, 36 years on, after watching a documentary about him.
Hunter was jailed for life at Dundee High Court in 1988 for the murder of his wife Lynda.
A judge described him as being “an evil man of exceptional depravity”.
Derek, who was in prison for his part in an armed robbery at Fairmuir Social Club in 1988, says Hunter came across as more devious than evil.
He said: “When we were first in a cell together he didn’t say much but after a while, he began to open up.
“He was quiet and struck me as being an intellectual – he wasn’t like the main type of person you meet in prison.
“He was also badly bullied by other prisoners.
Andrew Hunter ‘polite and an avid reader’ during time in Perth Prison
“He was polite, well-spoken, an avid reader and tried to keep himself to himself, a real loner.
“He never struck me as being evil, I thought he was more devious and very clever in concealing his true identity.”
Derek says they were only allowed out of their cell for an hour a day to take part in exercise.
Hunter died of a heart attack while serving his prison term in 1993.
Derek contacted The Courier after watching a repeat of the Channel 4 documentary In the Footsteps of Killers, which examined the unsolved Templeton Woods murders in Dundee and explored whether Hunter could have been the man responsible for killing Carol Lannen and Elizabeth McCabe.
Both killings took place after Hunter had arrived in Dundee from the west of Scotland, and happened a few years before he strangled his wife.
A book by Sandy McGregor, a former reporter with DC Thomson, has also pointed the finger at Hunter.
Derek says despite spending months in Hunter’s company, he remains unsure about his links to the Templeton Woods murders.
He said: “During his trial, it emerged Hunter was trawling the city centre for prostitutes.
“The photofit of the Templeton Woods murder suspect was believed at the time to bear a striking resemblance to him.”
‘Sometimes I believed him, sometimes I didn’t’
However, Derek doesn’t see the resemblance with “Drew”, as he knew Hunter.
He said: “Drew had a more pointy chin than the person in the photofit.
“He never spoke about the Templeton Woods murders but then he also always denied he had killed Lynda – he never struck me as being upset about her death.
“Sometimes I believed him, sometimes I didn’t. He did admit, however, to using prostitutes – picking them up in Dock Street and Arbroath Road.
“Hunter did also tell me he knew Carol Lannen from his job as a social worker.”
Ms Lannen was said to have been involved in sex work around the time of her death.
Derek added: “The full truth may never come out.”
Conversation