'Limbs in the Loch' killer William Beggs wins human rights case

William Beggs was jailed for life in October 2001

"Limbs in the Loch" murderer William Beggs has won a legal action against prison authorities who opened his mail.

The 51-year-old claimed the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) violated his human rights by opening confidential letters from the Information Commissioner.

Judge Lady Stacey agreed and said she would hear any claims for compensation at a future date.

Beggs was jailed for life in 2001 for killing and dismembering 18-year-old Barry Wallace in Kilmarnock in 1999.

During his time in jail, he has pursued a series of legal actions and was previously awarded compensation because his appeal took too long to be heard.

The latest action relates to his unsuccessful dispute with the Scottish Information Commissioner, Rosemary Agnew.

Claim denied

Beggs claimed she acted illegally over the handling of a Freedom of Information application he made from prison in 2013.

In March, judges at the Court of Session threw out the claim and ruled that Ms Agnew acted correctly.

Beggs' lawyers also pursued a claim at the Court of Session in Edinburgh that the SPS breached their client's human rights because they either opened or delayed delivering his correspondence on various occasions between January 2013 and January 2015.

Beggs was an inmate at HMP Glenochil and HMP Edinburgh between these times.

His advocate Kenneth Campbell QC argued that because the letters had been sent to him from the Information Commissioners Office, the correspondence was confidential and should not have been opened.

In a written judgement, Lady Stacey ruled that the SPS failed to respect Beggs' rights under article eight of the European Convention on Human Rights, which is supposed to guarantee an individual's "right to respect" for their "private and family life" and their "home and correspondence."

Lady Stacey ruled that the SPS did not follow its own guidelines when staff opened letters addressed to Beggs.

'A victim'

She wrote: "I therefore find that the petitioner's rights under article eight have been breached; that he is a victim; and I will hear counsel on whether a declarator or any other remedy is necessary at a date to be fixed."

Beggs was jailed for life in 2001 after murdering 18-year-old Barry Wallace and dismembering his body in December 1999 at a property in Doon Place, Kilmarnock.

He was previously jailed in 1987 for another murder but his conviction was overturned on appeal.

Beggs lost a lengthy appeal to overturn his conviction for the murder of Mr Wallace.

During his trial, the court heard how he cut up Mr Wallace's body and dropped the limbs and torso of his victim in Loch Lomond.

He disposed of Mr Wallace's head by throwing it into the sea off the Ayrshire coast.

The trial judge who jailed Beggs, Lord Osborne, ordered that he serve a minimum of 20 years and said he took into account the "seriousness of the appalling offences".