The death of one of Dundee’s most notorious killers will be the focus of a fatal accident inquiry.
Alastair Thompson died in December 2010 while he was serving a life sentence at Perth Prison for murdering and dismembering another man.
The circumstances of the 61-year-old’s death will be heard at Perth Sheriff Court as part of an inquiry due to begin on July 8.
Known locally as the “Law Killer,” Thompson was jailed in 1993 after a jury took just 70 minutes to find him guilty of murdering 52-year-old Gordon Dunbar, wrapping his body parts in plastic bags and dumping them around the Law.
Because Mr Dunbar’s head was never recovered, police were only able to identify him through DNA, fingerprints and a scar from an operation.
A murder hunt was sparked on December 30, 1992, following the grisly discovery of a severed arm by a policeman’s daughter as she walked a police dog. Further body parts were later found and a profile of the murder victim was established using medical technology.
In a bid to identify the unknown man, police issued an appeal which provoked a large response from around 90 people including the victim’s half-brother, who had been concerned that he did not appear for a Christmas meal and the landlord of the guesthouse where Mr Dunbar had been staying, who said he had not returned for about a week.
During the inquiries it emerged that the last confirmed sighting of the murdered man had been on Christmas Eve.
A tip-off from an informant soon led police officers to Thompson and among his possessions they found a key to a ninth-floor flat at Butterburn Court in Dundee.
Inside they discovered plastic bags of the type used to wrap the body parts, the other half of a torn label found in one of the bags and tape matching that sealing the bags.
They also found a bloodstained hacksaw and blood and tissue from Mr Dunbar were found near the bath.
It also emerged that Thompson had given Mr Dunbar’s gold chain to a girlfriend as a present.Protested innocenceDuring the trial at the High Court in Edinburgh, Thompson protested his innocence in the killing and robbery, claiming he had merely disposed of the body parts for the two Glasgow “heavies” he said had carried out the murder.
But he was sentenced to life in prison, with judge Lord Weir telling him he would serve a minimum of 20 years for his “nauseating and barbaric” crimes.
A feature of the trial had been Thompson’s habit of staring at those in the courtroom, with reporters and others commenting on his “evil eyes” that unsettled those caught in his glare.
At the time of the murder Thompson was acting as unofficial caretaker at a hostel in Haldane Terrace run by prisoner rehabilitation organisation SACRO.
Born in Edinburgh, he had been known to the police from the age of 16. In 1968 he was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his grandmother and was released on licence in 1984.
He settled in Perth, where he married a social worker attached to the prison service. The marriage did not last and he moved to Dundee, finding work in an amusement arcade. Thompson then moved briefly to England, returning to Dundee just months before he killed Mr Dunbar.