Human Interist Story

Tragedy of the babysitter who killed Helen, 3

Oct 19 2007 By Reg McKay

it had been a great night out, just what the two single mothers needed. But it was time to get home and check on the kids. Home to tragedy.

Mary McGowan and Sheila Laird were good friends whose lives were very similar. Divorced, in their 30s, with kids, no jobs and money tight - an occasional night out was called for.

That night in September 1972 it was just a drink or two at their local pub - The Blair on Dundee's Princes Street.

There they'd met a couple of men, great company, and gone on with them to a party. It was the 1970s, a time of freedom and pleasure seeking after all and they were grown women.

Besides, their kids were being cared for all right. Mary McGowan's seven kids were older and her 13-year old, Annette, was babysitting Sheila Laird's younger three - Elizabeth, seven, Susan, five, and wee Helen, three.

She'd babysat before with no problem. What did the mothers have to worry about.

Around 1.30am, the women got back to Sheila Laird's flat at Blacklock Crescent. Annette was fast asleep on the couch and, as usual, Sheila went straight through to the bedrooms to check on the wee ones. The older two were fast asleep and fine. One problem - she couldn't find Helen.

Where could she be in the middle of the night? Had she somehow got out of the house while Annette was sleeping?

In a blind panic Sheila shook Annette awake demanding to know where Helen was. Still half asleep, Annette went to Helen's bed and, pointing to the foot of it, said: "She's there."

Pulling back the covers, Sheila Laird found her youngest daughter, curled up into herself. Not asleep, but dead. Not from natural causes but murdered.

For a small city Dundee punches more than its weight, always has done with its industries, imports/exports and even football teams. This is also true for crime.

But even the experienced cops and doctors called to the scene were shocked. Who wouldn't be at the brutal murder of a beautiful three-year-old lassie?

Not just that - it was also how Helen had been killed.

Her body was covered in deep bite marks then strangled. A terrible, slow, painful way to die. What terrors she must have gone through in her last moments.

The pathologist was in no doubt - the bite marks matched 13-year old Annette McGowan's teeth. Scotland had yet another child-killing child.

A couple of years later, an Ayrshire boy, Willie Bell, would brutally murder his three-year-old sister, Angela, when on the run from approved school. The public outrage and anger echoed on for years.

Then in 1991 in the Bluebell Woods, near Glasgow's Drumchapel scheme, 11-year old Joseph Keith would batter three-year old James Campbell to death. Drumchapel people would have gladly saved the need for a trial.

Who can forget James Bulger's killers Jon Venables and Robert Thompson being chased by a howling lynch mob? Some would hunt them still.

Just a handful of examples of children who kill children. Somehow it has always affronted many people, driving them to fury and threats of violence.

Not with Annette McGowan. Annette got sympathy in spite of the brutal killing of Helen.

Annette had learning difficulties, a mental disorder and uncontrolled epilepsy. She suffered from a genetic complaint causing problems with one eye and other physical difficulties.

The girl should have been cared for, not caring for others.

In Scotland, there is no legal age limit for caring for children. A parent has to leave their child with someone responsible and capable whether 40 or 14. Due to her disabilities, Annette McGowan was neither.

There was never any dispute that Annette had killed wee Helen. Neither was any reason ever given.

"THE doctors were clear, Annette McGowan had acted with diminished responsibility. Probably even yet didn't understand the enormity of what she had done.

But she was frightened. A tiny little figure in the dock hanging on to the policewoman's hand as if her life depended on it.

It took the jury - many of whom were visibly distressed - less than 20 minutes to find Annette guilty of culpable homicide. Then came the difficult part - what to do with her.

In Scotland a child found guilty of murder would usually be sent to one of the secure units for kids.

But this wasn't usual nor was it simply a matter of protecting children from Annette - the girl desperately needed the right care and treatment herself.

The only appropriate place in Scotland was the State Hospital, Carstairs, among adult killers and offenders. That wasn't acceptable to the judge, Lord Keith.

The sad fact was that no resources existed. Perhaps if they had Annette McGowan would have been helped years before and Helen Laird would still be alive to this day.

A special arrangement was eventually made to care for Annette at Balgay Approved School in Dundee and the judge finally sentenced her to 10 years.

But 10 years of treatment and help, not jail. She was only a child after all. And a child who needed help not hell.

'Her body was covered in bite marks and she had been strangled...a terrible way to die'