Killer `gloated' of guns to PC
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Your support makes all the difference.Dunblane mass murderer Thomas Hamilton "gloated" as he held a gun and stood over a young woman police constable on her knees scribbling notes about his firearms licence.
PC Anne Anderson, 31, told Day 11 of the Cullen inquiry that she felt slightly intimidated by him. "I just got the feeling that he might have thought he could get some sort of reaction from me, him having these guns.
"I actually remember having to kneel down because there was nowhere for me to write. He was standing up and it was as if he was above me. He was sort of gloating, showing me his guns like `Look what I've got'.
Miss Anderson said she had gone to Hamilton's house in Stirling to carry out a standard inquiry into his application to renew his gun licence in January 1995.
She said she felt uncomfortable as she went through checks on the firearms certificate. "It was the way he looked at me. It's very difficult to put it into words."
When she returned to the police station she told a colleague that Hamilton had had a "strange and odd affect" on her.
A check with criminal intelligence records threw up one piece of information on Hamilton but it was only three lines referring to his attempt to set up boys' clubs in the Bannockburn area near Stirling.
She considered it irrelevant because it had nothing to do with his firearms certificate.
Miss Anderson said she felt happier after speaking to Detective Inspector John Anderson (no relation). "I was told they knew of him (Hamilton). Reports had gone in about him and there was nothing that I could do to stop him (obtaining his new gun licence)."
Mr Bonomy asked what she would have done had she seen a criminal intelligence report on Hamilton and activities with young males. It said he should be considered a "suspicious youth worker" and said he had been the subject of police interest in the past and had vehemently denied any wrong-doing.
Miss Anderson said she would have probably got in touch with her supervisor.
Colin Campbell QC for the parents asked how she could have completed a form that said Hamilton was a suitable person to possess guns. She replied: "On the basis that he had no previous convictions, that he is known to a JP who had known him for a long time and there was basically nothing to stop him having a firearms certificate."
She went on:"At the end of the day, it was a feeling that I had and basically I can't stop someone getting a firearms certificate because I have a bad feeling."
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