Pamela Hastie

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

police-scotland

Offense Location:

Johnstone, Renfrewshire

Summary:

Pamela Hastie, 16, was murdered in November 1981, with her body found dumped in Rannoch Woods, near her home in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, Scotland. She had been raped and murdered, strangled with a length of twine and hit on the head with a piece of wood. The case remains unsolved. Raymond Gilmour was released on appeal in 2007 after it emerged he was a mentally vulnerable person who cracked under pressure from officers – leaving the murder unsolved.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Offense:

Pamela Hastie, 16, was killed in woods close to her home in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, as she was walking home from school on November 4, 1981. The 16-year-old was strangled with a length of twine after the killer hit her on the head with a piece of wood and then dragged her into bushes. Pamela Hastie's semi-naked body was found in Woods close to her home in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, on November 5, 1981.

Additional Details:

Raymond Gilmour was caged for the killing in 1982 but always maintained his innocence, saying he had been forced to confess by police officers. Gilmour, who was a teenager at the time, was brought in for questioning after he admitted being in the woods the day before Pamela was killed – and exposing himself. He was remanded in custody on a charge of indecent exposure and questioned about the murder. Raymond Gilmour confessed to the murder of 16 year old Pamela Hastie twice, but then retracted his confession. His conviction was quashed on appeal when psychological evidence was introduced to suggest he was vulnerable and susceptible to falsely confessing and forensic evidence suggested the use of a knife or sharp object that was not mentioned in the confessions. He was released in 2002 after serving 21 years in prison, but his conviction was not quashed until August 2007 by three appeal judges. In the judgement, Lord Gill criticised non-disclosure of evidence of police violence against Gilmour. Police pathologists were also criticised for concealing evidence that Pamela had defensive knife wounds to her hands when Gilmour's confessions made no mention of using a knife. Among the fatal flaws in his confession was that he said he had used Pamela's belt or tie to strangle her, when she had been strangled by twine found in the woods where she was killed. Superintendent James Brown, who led the initial investigation, never believed Gilmour was guilty. He told the procurator fiscal in 1982 that he suspected two fellow officers had used violence to compel Gilmour to confess. In recent years there has been speculation linking all of Scotland's most notorious serial killers with Pamela's murder, including Robert Black, Angus Sinclair, and Johnstone man Peter Tobin. Police Scotland are now looking at the possibility of removing Pamela's body from Abbey Cemetery in nearby Elderslie, where she is buried, to see if they can extract any DNA and then match it to a possible suspect. A recent review of the case by detectives found that Pamela's body could still yield evidence, not available at the time. Detective Chief Inspector Brian Geddes stated: "The murder of Pamela Hastie remains unresolved, it is subject to review and any new information about her death will be investigated. Police Scotland never considers such cases closed and the passage of time is no barrier to the investigation of unresolved homicide cases."

Case Last Updated:

Sep 13, 2026