The last six months

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5.29   The Inquiry heard the written statement of a boy of 9 years of age who attended Dunblane Primary School and was a member of the Dunblane Boys Club. He stated that on 7 March when he had been playing football at the club Thomas Hamilton took him out and sat him on a bench in order to speak to him. He then continued: "He asked me the way to the gym and the way to the hall. He asked what time certain classes went to the gym and the main way into the school. He asked directions about once he was in the main hall, how to get to the gym and where the stage was. He asked how to get to the Assembly Hall, and I told him to turn right after the main entrance. He said what day do all people go on the stage to do the play. I didn't know and he said to ask the P7s to find out. He asked if the younger children, like the primary 1s to 4s go to the assembly at a different time to the primary 5s to 7s. I told him that the assembly was on a Wednesday morning and that the younger ones went after us. He asked me what time did assembly start and gym, I said 9.30 for assembly. I didn't tell him the time for gym....... The other question was something to do with the gym fire exit. I think it was how many fire exits there were to get out of the gym. Mr Hamilton asked me these questions every single week. He had been asking me these questions for a long time, about 2 years. He didn't ask me any more questions and said I could go back to playing football". According to his father the boy's first reaction to hearing that Thomas Hamilton had been involved in the shooting was: "It can't be Mr Hamilton, he was a nice guy". Later he told his father about Thomas Hamilton asking him about the school. His father queried whether Thomas Hamilton had asked him for directions every week. The boy replied "Well, for quite a while".

5.30   Mr J S B Wilson, who is a retired police officer, met Thomas Hamilton on 7 or 8 March in Stirling. In the course of conversation Thomas Hamilton said that he could do with some instruction in shooting at a distance of 10 yards. He went on to say that the authorities were against him and he seemed to be anti-police. He then said that as far as he was concerned the police were scared to go in when Michael Ryan started shooting at Hungerford. He went on to talk about a firearms incident at Cowie, just outside Stirling, where a police vehicle had been blasted by a shot gun after the police had responded to a call about someone running about with it. He said that the police firearms team should have taken care of it. He then asked whether firearms were kept at all police offices. Mr Wilson responded that this certainly was not the case while he was a police officer. It applied only to places which were manned 24 hours a day. Thomas Hamilton then said that there should be a permanent firearms response unit available so that they could get to the scene very quickly. It was obvious to Mr Wilson that he had read quite a bit about the subject but he did not get the impression at the time that Thomas Hamilton was looking for information.

5.31   On 2 or 3 March Mr R M Ure saw Thomas Hamilton coming out of the grounds of Braehead Primary School in Stirling. Thomas Hamilton said that he had been away organising another boys club and "seemed agitated as if he had been caught out". On 10 March when he met him in Stirling he was carrying a briefcase of the type which is fitted out for carrying guns. On 4 March he came to the office of Mr D G McGregor and in the course of conversation said that he had bought two shirts in Debenhams. He passed the remark: "the beauty of it is I will never have to pay for them ever".

5.32   In January Thomas Hamilton had purchased the pliers with which he cut the telephone wires near Dunblane Primary School on 13 March.

5.33   On 12 March he travelled to Dunblane from Stirling in the middle of the day. About 3 o'clock in the afternoon of the same day he was in Stirling again and hired the van which he drove to the school on the following day. The hire was for a single day as from about 3 pm. He wanted to pay the entire charge in advance but he was told that it should be paid on return. He left a deposit of £50. The receptionist at the hire company said that "he unnerved me quite a bit ....... the way he spoke mainly. He spoke very slowly, very clearly, precisely, but with no emotion or expression ..... there was just nothing, nothing in there. You couldn't have held a conversation with him".

5.34   It may be noted that in the course of his evidence Mr W B MacFarlane said that Thomas Hamilton "was very methodical, he was nobody's fool .... I think his life and everything he did was well thought out in advance before he actually did it".

5.35   As was pointed out by Dr J A Baird, consultant forensic psychiatrist in one of his reports, it appears that Thomas Hamilton planned carefully in order to ensure that nothing would go wrong at the school on 13 March. As I mentioned at para 3.39, each of the magazines was marked in such a way as to ensure that it was inserted the correct way round. The manner in which cartridges were loaded into the magazines may suggest that this was intended to avoid any risk of the pistol jamming. Over each shoulder he had a canvas bag which contained ammunition. The bags had been tied open so that they could not close accidentally. They also had cardboard inserts so that they would not collapse. Further the route which he took when approaching the school buildings appears to show pre-planning and local knowledge. In view of the evidence to which I referred in para 5.29 it may be that his original intention had been to enter the Assembly Hall while assembly was in progress. See also para 5.38.

What was found at 7 Kent Road

5.36   After the shootings the police found at 7 Kent Road 715 rounds of 9 mm and 280 rounds of .357 ammunition, along with 11 rounds of .38 special. If the 501 rounds of 9 mm and 242 rounds of .357 ammunition taken to Dunblane Primary School are added, it follows that before he departed for the school he had a total of 1216 rounds of 9 mm and 522 rounds of .357 ammunition. The police also found a telephone directory open at the page containing the telephone number of Dunblane Primary School; and on the walls of the rear bedroom a number of targets with stickers of the type which Thomas Hamilton had used at the club meetings as I have already described. There were no photographs hanging on the walls of any of the rooms but a total of 445 slides, 542 photographs and 4,260 negatives were found during a search of the house. The majority of these showed boys with their tops bare. There were also 37 videotapes of the type which I have described earlier. There was also a collection of swimming trunks, most of which were black.

Psychological and psychiatric evidence

5.37   The Inquiry was provided with a report on Thomas Hamilton by Professor David J Cooke, Head of Forensic Clinical Psychology for the Greater Glasgow Health Board, Community and Mental Health Trust and Professor of Forensic Psychology at Glasgow Caledonian University; along with a further report by him on the subject of prediction of violent behaviour from the psychological perspective. In addition the Inquiry had the benefit of three reports prepared by Dr J A Baird, Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist and former Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist and Physician Superintendent at the State Hospital, Carstairs containing a psychiatric assessment of Thomas Hamilton. These witnesses were given sight of various productions and were supplied with other information which provided an insight into the life of Thomas Hamilton. They also had the opportunity to read transcripts of evidence given at the Inquiry.

5.38   Before coming to their views as to Thomas Hamilton's state of mind it is convenient for me to set out what they inferred as to his intentions. Professor Cooke said that there were major difficulties in Thomas Hamilton's life which threatened his self-esteem. He was in debt. He was refused a loan. He was being refused access to premises to hold his boys clubs and fewer boys were attending the clubs. It may have been the case that, like many mass killers, he obtained feelings of power and mastery by fantasising his revenge on those whom he perceived as persecuting him. It is likely that his fantasies became more complex and compelling after "behavioural tryouts" when firing at his gun club. He believed that school staff were telling families not to send children to his clubs and that parents were spreading rumours that he was a pervert. Professor Cooke commented on Thomas Hamilton's actions: "Perhaps the most powerful way of getting back at people like that is to kill their children. That is a very traumatic thing to happen. Perhaps he thought he would make maximum impact by doing that. Again, that is speculation". There had been meticulous planning and preparation, so he did not think that Thomas Hamilton had "flipped". Dr Baird accepted that after the event it was possible to formulate explanations for the commission of the murders but he was still at a loss to express any reason which would satisfy himself as to why they were committed. In his first report he observed that a number of pieces of evidence showed that Thomas Hamilton had planned the events very carefully in order that nothing would go wrong. He appeared to have taken pride and almost to have enjoyed the preparation for his crimes. His single specific intention was to kill himself but once he embarked on his murderous spree his victims appeared to have been entirely random. It was possible that he had selected a school because of his association with schools or because, unlike with adults, he would have been much less likely to experience opposition and his victims were the most vulnerable and the most defenceless he could have selected. He went on to state: "It was not my impression that he particularly relished in the killing spree or wanted to prolong it as there was no reason for him to have killed himself at the moment when he did other than to avoid running the risk that emergency services might arrive on the scene and prevent him from killing himself".

5.39   Both Professor Cooke and Dr Baird ruled out any form of mental illness. In particular Dr Baird said that there was no evidence of changes which would have been expected with the onset of mental illness. Furthermore, mental conditions could be quite disabling. It is clear from the evidence that Thomas Hamilton had no history of mental illness or anything suggestive of such an illness. In passing I note that he did not attend a doctor between January 1974 and the date of his death, apart from attendance at hospital for a sprained ankle in March 1993. He did not smoke or drink. A post mortem examination disclosed no form of physical abnormality which could account for his behaviour. Tests on samples from his body showed no evidence of intoxication with alcohol or of drugs abuse; and no evidence of chronic lead poisoning or chronic misuse of androgenic steroids.

5.40   Each of these experts detected what they regarded as signs or traits of abnormal personality in Thomas Hamilton, although they did not fully agree as to how that personality disorder should be categorised. Dr Baird pointed out every adult displayed features of personality which were particular to himself or herself. They tended to be enduring features and often, although not always, appeared to have originated from upbringing and early formative experiences. When undesirable features were prominent this could cause problems and it was in this context that the concept of personality disorder had arisen.