An extract from chapter 6

Thomas Hamilton's possession of firearms and ammunition



6.43   The documentary evidence shows that Mr McMurdo was involved in a considerable amount of correspondence with or concerning Thomas Hamilton during the period 1989-1992. This dealt mainly with his complaint against members of the Central Scotland Police and his persistent complaints about undesirable links between the Scouts and the police. Commenting on a letter from Thomas Hamilton to him dated 8 June 1990 Mr McMurdo agreed in evidence that there was "no love lost between him and the Central Scotland Police Force". When Thomas Hamilton sought to involve The Scottish Office in his complaints about the relationship between the police and the Scouts and the handling of his complaint against the Police Mr McMurdo wrote in strong terms to The Scottish Office in a letter dated 14 January 1992. In the course of that letter he emphatically rejected an implication that police officers' notebooks had been tampered with and the inference which Thomas Hamilton had sought to draw from the fact that many police officers helped voluntary organisations such as the Scouts. He said:
      "How Hamilton can draw a sinister inference from such a healthy and worthwhile pastime is beyond my comprehension. For Mr Hamilton to see his tiny local organisation as a serious rival to the Scouting movement indicates a certain lack of perspective".


Later in the letter he said:
      "In common with most right-minded people I am proud of the connection between Central Scotland Police and all the youth organisations with which we work. Only a bitter and petty minded individual like Thomas Hamilton could pervert such a relationship into something sleazy and dishonourable and imagine some undercurrent of corruption. I am sorry about the length of this letter but, as a comparatively recent beneficiary of Mr Hamilton's vindictive correspondence, you should be aware of the background to almost four years of ever more irrational outpourings. Both I and the two Chief Constables have tried very hard to resolve the matter but, as always when trying to reason with a zealot, each time a point appears to have been settled he re-introduces it in another guise, adjusts the facts selectively to suit his ends and it all begins again".

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Prepared 16 October 1996