Advertisement

Moira 'Killer' Abused On 'Same Scale As Savile'

The daughter of a paedophile suspected of killing an 11-year-old more than 50 years ago has said she thinks her father abused children on the same scale as Jimmy Savile.

Sandra Brown told Sky News that she thought Moira Anderson was not the only girl to meet an unpleasant fate at the hands of her father, Alex Gartshore.

She said she suspected her father, who died in 2006, was part of a paedophile ring operating in the central belt of Scotland.

Forensic scientists are exhuming a grave at Old Monkland cemetery, in Lanarkshire, where they suspect Gartshore concealed the body of Moira in the open grave of someone he knew.

Radar tests on the grave of Sinclair Upton in 2007 showed an anomaly which indicated the body of a child could also be buried there.

The family of Moira, who went missing in 1957, applied to have the grave exhumed.

Visiting the grave, Gartshore's daughter, told Sky News: "My father was every bit a paedophile as Jimmy Savile ever was and my sad conclusion is that Moira's not the only child in the central belt of Scotland who suffered this fate.

"I believe there really was an active paedophile ring that was operating in this part of the world.

"Who knows if it's still the case that it is.

"But it's my belief that in the fifties, sixties and seventies certainly, there were other victims and they are very likely to have come from care homes and those would be kids who would be labelled, unfortunately, runaways, troubled teenagers.

"Sadly, they would possibly not even be reported in the media at the time."

She added: "Whether we find Moira or not, we know we've looked, I hope we see results in the next few days.

"My belief is that it's been a very difficult road but there are reasons why we are here, we've not just put a pin into a haystack, so I really hope we will have favourable outcomes.

"It's very much the end of the road if Moira's not here."