Pentland Hills triple killer Andrew Walker dies in care home

A former soldier who killed three of his colleagues in an armed robbery has died in a care home.

Andrew Walker, 67, was a corporal in the Royal Scots when he carried out the crime in Midlothian in 1985.

At the time of his conviction, judge Lord Grieve recommended that he serve at least 30 years in prison because of his "callous disregard for human life".

Walker was left severely disabled by a stroke in 2009 and was freed on compassionate grounds 10 years ago.

It has emerged he died on 3 September at Murdostoun Castle care home in Wishaw, North Lanarkshire. According to the Scottish Sun, official papers list stroke as a "secondary" cause of his death with "cognitive decline and frailty".

Walker was 30 and based at Glencorse barracks in Penicuik when he carried out the robbery on 17 January 1985.

He signed out a sub-machine gun from the armoury and held up a military Land Rover which was being used to collect the army payroll.

He shot and killed retired Major David Cunningham, 56, Staff Sergeant Terence Hosker, 39, of the Royal Army Pay Corps, and Private John Thomson, 25, of the Kings Own Scottish Borderers.

Walker then went on the run before being captured three days later.

The bodies of the three soldiers were found in the Pentland Hills. The money Walker stole - £19,000 - has never been recovered.

On sentencing him, Lord Grieve said: "A person who could bring himself to do what he did is not fit to live in a society which still regards itself as civilised.

"This was a calculated crime. The accused, if he was to achieve his purpose, had to kill.

"I am quite satisfied that the crime was carefully planned, and I am also quite sure that the substance of the evidence given by Walker was a tissue of lies."

According to The Scotsman, while serving his sentence at Shotts Prison, Walker was said to have bragged about having buried the cash in the Pentland Hills and had persuaded fellow prisoners to do him favours with the promise of getting some of the money.

He was given another nine years in jail for his role in the 1986 Peterhead Prison siege.

In 2002, Walker's original sentence was cut by three years at the Court of Appeal.