Glencorse Massacre: I discovered the bodies of three murdered soldiers

The police officer who discovered the bodies of three murdered soldiers in a remote Scottish valley 40 years ago has spoken publicly about his experience for the first time.

PC Bill Anderson followed a trail of blood in thick snow for almost two miles before finding the bodies of Staff Sgt Terrance Hosker, Pte John Thomson and retired Maj David Cunningham in the Pentland Hills.

He told BBC Scotland News he was alone with the bodies for almost an hour as he waited for back-up from colleagues, not knowing if the gunman was going to return and kill him.

The so-called Glencorse massacre left him so traumatised he never until now returned to the hills where he played as a child and roamed as a fell runner.

Earlier this week he finally returned to the scene to lay flowers, accompanied by former colleague Dougie Allan and a BBC Scotland reporter.

"I feel emotional being here but I also feel that I now have a sense of peace from the hills," Mr Anderson, 78, said.

"I feel like there is now a completion after 40 years that we have paid our respects to the three men who lost their lives when we've been allowed to live a long life."

Both Mr Anderson, who was 39 at the time, and Allan, then 35, arrived at the beauty spot on 17 January 1985 after receiving a call from a local postman to say a Land Rover was stuck in a ditch.

They had been out in their panda car looking for a Land Rover that was late back to Glencorse barracks in Midlothian. It had been used to transport soldiers' wages picked up from a bank in nearby Penicuik.

When they found the vehicle it was a "bloodbath" - but there was no sign of any driver of passengers.

Mr Anderson ran through the snow following a trail of blood while Mr Allan went back to the main road to get a signal on his radio. He called the control room before returning to guard the Land Rover and preserve the evidence.

Mr Allan, who is now 75, said: "I could feel the hair going up on the back of my neck when we saw all the blood and the empty shell cases.

"I thought something has gone badly wrong here and if there is someone running around with a gun we could be a target as well.

"The blood was everywhere, it was a bloodbath, I'd never seen a shooting like that before.

"I was very wary about where the person was who had fired the gun and I felt like a sitting duck."

When Mr Anderson reached a derelict cottage next to Loganlea reservoir he found the bodies behind a wall, at the bottom of a flight of steps.

Sgt Hosker and Maj Cunningham were "like book ends" sitting upright on the steps while Pte Thomson was in a crumpled heap having been shot through the back of the head.

"I got the fright of my life when I looked over that wall," said Mr Anderson.

"The vision of those men sticks in my head - white faced men covered in blood and snow and a horrible isolated location like that, they were dumped there."

He said he felt vulnerable and exposed as he stood guard at the crime scene and waited for back up from police colleagues.

And that fear has had a lasting impact.

"There's people been taken out but you don't know what the score is, you don't know what has gone down, " the father of four added.

"I was anxious and my eyes were looking all over the place because I didn't know where the perpetrator was.

"I was petrified, especially when I saw a man coming down the path towards me. I was shouting 'halt, who goes there?"

To his relief, the man was a local farmer.

Another solider, Andrew Walker, was later arrested and eventually sentenced to life for the triple murder. He died in 2021.

He had hijacked the Land Rover which had been carrying soldiers' wages.

Walker shot and killed two of the soldiers in the vehicle and made Pte Thomson drive into the Pentland Hills to dump the bodies before he was also executed.

He was making his escape out of the Pentland Hills when he skidded on an icy bend and crashed.

He ran off with £19,000 - leaving the vehicle in a ditch.

Mr Anderson, who is now 79, said the discovery left him scarred but his employer never offered any psychological help.

"I went for that four or five years further up the line off my own back," he said.

"It affected me in a lot of ways, it made me very cynical, when I saw three men killed for £19,000, it left me cold inside and a bit distant."

He also suffered flashbacks.

"That day did give me trauma," he said.

"I didn't want to go back to the location because it was going to give me memories of what I had seen.

"I love the Pentland Hills but I never went back."

In the years afterwards, Mr Anderson said he "went into isolation mode", which was not like him as he was once "quite a gregarious, outgoing person".

He moved out of the area and that got his "mind off things".

"This is the one case that's haunted me," he said.

"I kept thinking for £19,000, how cheap was that for three human beings' lives and all their families.

"If you're a thinker that's what you think about and so that's why I have never gone back in there.

"You never think in your wildest dreams you are going to encounter something like that in your life.

"We're very lucky to be alive to tell the tale."

A plaque now marks the spot where the soldiers' bodies were found.

Mr Anderson said a young soldier was so moved when he heard about the murders he paid for a plaque and installed it at the cottage in 2023.

"It felt good to see the plaque, that has meant a lot to me," he said.

Both Mr Anderson and Mr Allan are urging the Army to build a memorial to the murdered soldiers.