Latest news with #StrathclydePolice
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Retired police officer who was key in naloxone rollout honoured
A retired Assistant Chief Constable who was instrumental in rolling out an overdose antidote to frontline officers has said he is 'delighted and humbled' to be recognised in the King's Birthday Honours. Retired Police Scotland Assistant Chief Constable Gary Ritchie has been awarded the King's Police Medal, while the force's chief officer of Human Resources Nicky Page becomes an MBE. Gary Ritchie joined what was then Strathclyde Police in 1991 and retired in April 2025 after more than three decades of police service. He was appointed as an Assistant Chief Constable in 2019 and was instrumental in the rollout of naloxone, which is used to reverse the effect of opioids, to all frontline police officers in 2020. He also played a key role during the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow in 2021 and during the Covid-19 pandemic, acting as Gold Commander during both. Mr Ritchie said: 'I am both delighted and humbled that I have been awarded the King's Police Medal. 'Any personal achievements which have led to me receiving this award have only been made possible by the many people inside and outside the service who have contributed to the successful initiatives, projects and operations that we have undertaken over the years. 'The award is much more a recognition of their contributions and, at times, wise counsel and advice. 'I will be forever grateful and proud of what we achieved together.' Nicky Page becomes an MBE for services to policing, equality and health. She joined Strathclyde Police in 2010 and has provided strategic human resources leadership for more than 22,000 people in Police Scotland. This included playing a key role during the transition period that brought together eight legacy forces to form Police Scotland in 2013. She led the Staff Pay, Reward and Modernisation Project, aligning pay and conditions across the organisation, which the force said contributed to a reduction in the gender pay gap. Since 2017, she has also volunteered as a Community First Responder with the Scottish Ambulance Service, contributing more than 1000 hours of service while balancing the demands of her role and family life. She said: 'I am both grateful and surprised to receive this honour. 'I'm deeply appreciative of the support I have received from my colleagues in policing, the Ambulance Service and fellow responders within the Bathgate Group. 'This honour reflects the shared commitment and teamwork that have made my contribution possible.' Chief Constable Jo Farrell praised the pair. She said: 'I want to warmly congratulate Gary and Nicky on this well deserved recognition of their outstanding careers in public service, leadership and collaboration across sectors. 'Police officers, staff and volunteers work hard to deliver for our communities and these awards are an opportunity to thank them and celebrate their huge contributions to society.'
Glasgow Times
13-06-2025
- Business
- Glasgow Times
Avenues work on two Glasgow city centre streets now complete
Holland Street and Pitt Street, part of the wider £120m City Avenues project, are re-open, including new tree-lined streets, widened pavements with a Caithness stone finish, segregated cycle lanes and green landscaping. Along these streets, an influx of private investment has also led to hundreds of homes being built in the area. READ NEXT:Peter Krykant was brave enough to take risks because he wanted to save lives The development is being hailed as the biggest physical transformation of the Glasgow city centre since the pedestrianisation of Buchanan Street in the 1970s. The Holland Street/Pitt Street project was delivered with both the Scottish and UK Governments contributing £2.4million, with additional funding provided from developer contributions and Transport Scotland. Amongst the complimentary investments adding to the transformation of the area is Moda's Holland Park apartment building. Moda is one of the private investors who have built in the area, building the Holland Park development on the site of the old HQ of Strathclyde Police. James Blakey, Moda Group's director of planning and engagement, said: 'Moda is proud to have supported these improvements, reinforcing our commitment to investing in the city's future.' 'The city council said when complete, the Avenues programme - which includes the transformation of George Square - will form a network of attractive and accessible streets comparable with the people-focused changes introduced across Europe and designed to encourage more residents, visitors and investors to the city centre. Councillor Angus Millar, Glasgow City Council's Convenor for City Centre Recovery, praised the transformation of the area. He said: 'The Holland and Pitt Street Avenue also show how public and private investment is working together to unlock opportunities across the city centre, creating vibrant and attractive new districts.'
Edinburgh Live
31-05-2025
- Edinburgh Live
Top detective to reveal how serial killer Peter Tobin was led to Edinburgh prison
Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info A former police chief who helped bring serial killer Peter Tobin to justice is set to tell the story behind some of his most chilling cases. David Swindle was in charge of the investigation into the rape and murder of Polish student Angelika Kluk in 2006. Her body was found under the floorboards of a Glasgow church, and handyman Tobin was identified as a suspect. Swindle then set up the UK wide Operation Anagram - linking Tobin to the murders of two other young women, Vicky Hamilton and Dinah Nicol, dating back to 1991. The twisted killer died in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary in October 2022, at the age of 76. At the time, he was serving a whole life term for all three murders including Angelika. Swindle who retired from Strathclyde Police at the rank of Detective Superintendent, will take to the stage later this year in Irvine, Ayrshire, for his new true crime show Murder – A Search for the Truth. Other dates across Scotland are also being planned. Swindle, who worked on hundreds of homicides in his distinguished 34-year career, has recently completed a nationwide UK tour seen by almost 170,000 people, his new live show will be at Irvine Harbour Arts Centre on November 15. The audience will be given an insight into the policing techniques deployed in a major murder investigation including the arrest of Tobin. Sign up for Edinburgh Live newsletters for more headlines straight to your inbox Swindle will also look at the psychology of killers and try and answer the question - are they born or made? He said: 'I'm excited to bring this show to Irvine. "It's the perfect setting for a face-to-face with the truth behind some of the UK's darkest crimes No drama. Just facts, cases and real consequences. "Sometimes there is too much focus on the killer and we should never ever forget the victims. For every one of these murders there's at least one victim – someone's daughter or son. It's all about the victims." Join Edinburgh Live's Whatsapp Community here and get the latest news sent straight to your messages. Operation Anagram used every police force across the UK to investigate Peter Tobin who was originally from Johnstone in Renfrewshire. It looked at more than 1000 leads, tracked down more than 40 places he lived and investigated any unsolved murders or missing women in those areas. Detectives narrowed the list to nine unsolved murders and missing person cases with possible links to Tobin. Operation Anagram also looked at the unsolved murders from 1968 and 1969 of young Glasgow mothers Patricia Docker, 25, Helen Puttock, 29, and Jemima MacDonald, 32, by a man dubbed Bible John by newspapers. However it found no link to Tobin. Since his retiral Mr Swindle has also helped the parents of Livingston woman Kirsty Maxwell investigate the mystery death of their daughter who fell from a balcony while holidaying in Benidorm, Spain, with friends in 2017. Tickets on sale now via
Daily Record
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Peter Tobin detective to reveal how cops finally caught serial killer
Retired detective David Swindle will take to the stage to talk about his biggest cases including the capture of a notorious serial killer. The former police chief who brought serial killer Peter Tobin to justice is to take the public behind the scenes of his most chilling cases. David Swindle was in charge of the investigation into the 2006 rape and murder of Polish student Angelika Kluk - whose body was found hidden under the floorboards of a Glasgow church - and quickly identified handyman Tobin as the prime suspect. He then set up the UK wide Operation Anagram which linked Tobin to the unsolved murders and disappearances in 1991 of two other young women Vicky Hamilton and Dinah Nicol. At the time of his death in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary in October, 2022, Tobin, then 76, was serving a whole life term for all three murders including Angelika. Swindle who retired from Strathclyde Police at the rank of Detective Superintendent, will take to the stage later this year in Irvine, Ayrshire for his new true crime show Murder – A Search for the Truth. Other dates across Scotland are also being planned. Swindle, who worked on hundreds of homicides in his distinguished 34 year career, has recently completed a nationwide UK tour seen by almost 170,000 people, His new live show will be at Irvine Harbour Arts Centre on November 15. The audience will be given an insight into the policing techniques deployed in a major murder investigation including the arrest of Tobin. Swindle will also look at the psychology of killers and try and answer the question - are they born or made? He said: 'I'm excited to bring this show to Irvine."It's the perfect setting for a face-to-face with the truth behind some of the UK's darkest crimes "No drama. Just facts, cases and real consequences. 'Sometimes there is too much focus on the killer and we should never ever forget the victims. "For every one of these murders there's at least one victim – someone's daughter or son. It's all about the victims.' Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. Operation Anagram used every police force across the UK to investigate Peter Tobin who was originally from Johnstone in Renfrewshire .It looked at more than 1000 leads, tracked down more than 40 places he lived and investigated any unsolved murders or missing women in those areas. Detectives narrowed the list to nine unsolved murders and missing person cases with possible links to Tobin. Operation Anagram also looked at the unsolved murders from 1968 and 1969 of young Glasgow mothers Patricia Docker, 25, Helen Puttock, 29, and Jemima MacDonald, 32, by a man dubbed Bible John by newspapers. However it found no link to Tobin. Since his retiral Mr Swindle has also helped the parents of Livingston woman Kirsty Maxwell investigate the mystery death of their daughter who fell from a balcony while holidaying in Benidorm, Spain, with friends in 2017.
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Yahoo
The families devastated by the terrible cruelty of serial killer Peter Tobin
On the day police found a second body behind a house once occupied by a murderer, the father of a missing teenager raised his hand, crossed his fingers and said he hoped it was his daughter. Dinah McNicol was 18 when she vanished in 1991, after hitchhiking home to Essex from a dance music festival in Hampshire. Her father had spoken to countless reporters since then and it just so happened that I was interviewing him when 16 years of tortuous uncertainty were coming to an end. Ian McNicol had been left in such a dark place that he wanted his daughter to be the person in a shallow grave, because it would mean the family would finally know where she was, get her back, and lay her to rest. His words laid bare the terrible cruelty of serial killers and they've haunted me ever since. A new BBC documentary, The Hunt for Peter Tobin, explains how the murder of a young Polish student finally solved the mystery of what had happened to Dinah and a second teenager, 15-year-old Vicky Hamilton, who had gone missing in central Scotland six months earlier. Tobin was a registered sex offender on the run from the authorities when he killed Angelika Kluk and concealed her body beneath the floor of a Glasgow church in September 2006. He was 60 at the time. The crime was so horrific, detectives were convinced he must have killed before. Strathclyde Police launched Operation Anagram, a nationwide scoping exercise which tried to establish whether Tobin could be linked to unsolved cases around the UK. Within months, officers realised he was living in Bathgate when Vicky Hamilton went missing in the West Lothian town in February 1991. Despite a huge inquiry and appeals by her distraught family, 15 years had passed with no trace of Vicky ever being found. The link with Tobin changed everything. Forensic scientists re-examined evidence from the time of her disappearance and found DNA from Tobin's son on Vicky's purse, which had been left near Edinburgh bus station. In June 2007, Lothian and Borders Police searched Tobin's former home in Bathgate. In the attic, they discovered a knife which bore traces of Vicky's DNA. Operation Anagram went on to connect Tobin to Dinah, who'd gone missing at the other end of the country in August 1991. Her cash card had been used in towns across the south-east of England, from Hove to Margate and Ramsgate in Kent. The money draining from Dinah's account was compensation she received after her mother Judy died in a road accident when she was six. The police found evidence linking Tobin to the card and established he was living in Margate when Dinah failed to come home. One of Tobin's neighbours recalled "Scottish Pete" digging a deep hole in his back garden around that time. Essex Police thought they were going to get answers for Ian McNicol and his family when they went to Tobin's old house at 50 Irvine Drive in November 2007 - but instead of Dinah, they found Vicky. Having covered the search in Bathgate, I travelled south to Margate with a sense of disbelief which was shared by the Scottish officers investigating Tobin's past. Everyone in Scotland knew the face of the smiling schoolgirl with the bobbed dark hair. The discovery of her remains so far from home was horrifying and baffling. How had she ended up there? The answer was that Tobin had killed Vicky in Bathgate, dismembered her body, and taken her remains with him when he moved to a new house 470 miles away in the south of England. In the days that followed, as the police continued their search for Dinah at Irvine Drive, I interviewed her dad at his home in Tillingham, a small Essex village built round a Norman church. Ian was an instantly likeable man in his late 60s; a retired musician originally from Glasgow who'd named his daughter after a jazz standard. Over the years, Dinah's disappearance had taken its toll on his health. We sat down and started filming. "When I lost my wife, we knew she was dead because we had to bury her," he said. "We went through the normal process of grief. "When a member of your family goes missing, it's 20 times worse than death because you do not know a thing and all sorts of things go through your imagination." He was taking some solace from the fact that another family in exactly the same situation had been helped, even though his daughter had not been found. Ian turned to the camera to address Vicky's family and said: "If you're watching, from me and my family, good luck to you. We wish you all the best." The doorbell rang. Another reporter told us the police had just announced the discovery of a second body. Ian agreed to continue the interview, raised his right hand with his fingers crossed and said: "If they've said that, please be Dinah, and get us out of this misery. "I would bury her next to her mother. So please, let it be Dinah." Later, after the police confirmed the remains were those of his daughter, Ian said he could die in peace. He passed away in 2014. In the BBC documentary, Vicky's younger sister Lindsay Brown tells of the impact her disappearance had on their mother Jeanette. Two years after Vicky went missing her mother died, her family said, from a broken heart. Archive footage shows Lindsay reading a statement to the media outside the High Court in Dundee in 2008, on the day Tobin was convicted of Vicky's murder, flanked by her older sister Sharon and twin brother Lee. Given all they had been through, what she did that day was as brave as it was difficult to watch. She said: "Vicky was much more than the girl who was abducted and killed by a stranger or a girl on a missing poster. We will always remember Vicky as she lived, not as she died." The detectives investigating Tobin's past were certain he had other victims. They did all they could to find answers for other families, to no avail. Tobin took his secrets to the grave and was serving three life sentences when he died in 2022. No-one came forward to claim his body. His ashes were disposed of at sea. When I was interviewed for the BBC documentary, the producer asked what I had thought when I heard the news. I told him I had been pleased and hoped his death hadn't been pleasant. Should I have been that honest? Did it cross a line? I don't know. What I do know is that I'll never forget Ian McNicol or what he said to me 17 years ago: "Please be Dinah." The horrific crimes of serial killer Peter Tobin Serial killer Peter Tobin dies in hospital, aged 76 CSI Scotland: How forensics caught Peter Tobin
