Amanda Duffy, a 19-year-old Scottish student, was killed in grisly circumstances in 1992. The main suspect, Francis Auld, was tried for murder in the

High Court of Justiciary The High Court of Justiciary is the supreme criminal court in Scotland. The High Court is both a trial court and a court of appeal. As a trial court, the High Court sits on circuit at Parliament House or in the adjacent former Sheriff Cou ...

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

and was acquitted when the jury returned a majority verdict of "

not proven Not proven (, ) is a verdict available to a Courts of Scotland, court of law in Scotland. Under Scots law, a Criminal procedure, criminal trial may end in one of three verdicts, one of conviction ("guilty") and two of acquittal ("not proven" and ...

". A bid by prosecutors to try Auld for a second time on the basis of new evidence was rejected by the courts in 2016. Auld died of pancreatic cancer in July 2017, aged 45. The outcome of Auld's trial prompted a national conversation around the continued existence of the "not proven" verdict and around

double jeopardy In jurisprudence, double jeopardy is a procedural defence (primarily in common law jurisdictions) that prevents an accused person from being tried again on the same (or similar) charges following an acquittal or conviction and in rare case ...

rules.

Murder

Duffy, a 19-year-old student at

Motherwell College New College Lanarkshire Motherwell Campus is a further education college located in the Ravenscraig area of Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. An independent institution from 1967, in 2013 it merged with Cumbernauld College to form New Col ...

, went missing in the early hours of the morning of Saturday 30 May 1992 after a night out with friends, celebrating the fact she had been called to audition at the

Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland ( gd, Conservatoire Rìoghail na h-Alba), formerly the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama ( gd, Acadamaidh Rìoghail Ciùil is Dràma na h-Alba) is a conservatoire of dance, drama, music, production, and ...

. Her body was found by passers-by that evening in an area of waste ground near a car park at Miller Street,

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

South Lanarkshire gd, Siorrachd Lannraig a Deas , image_skyline = , image_flag = , image_shield = Arms_slanarkshire.jpg , image_blank_emblem = Slanarks.jpg , blank_emblem_type = Council logo , image_map ...

. Duffy was found "lying on her back, naked from the waist down, with her face and head covered in blood" and branches and twigs "had been inserted into her mouth, nostrils and vagina". According to a post mortem examination, she had died between 1.30 am and 1.30 pm, having suffered extensive

blunt force injuries Blunt trauma, also known as blunt force trauma or non-penetrating trauma, is physical traumas, and particularly in the elderly who fall. It is contrasted with penetrating trauma which occurs when an object pierces the skin and enters a tissue ...

to the head and neck, as well as

asphyxia Asphyxia or asphyxiation is a condition of deficient supply of oxygen to the body which arises from abnormal breathing. Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which affects primarily the tissues and organs. There are many circumstances that can i ...

and injuries to the anus and rectum.

Trial

20-year-old Francis Auld was tried for Duffy's murder in 1992. Witnesses had seen Auld with Duffy between midnight and 1 am. A bite to Duffy's right breast, which would have been "excruciatingly painful" and was inflicted within an hour prior to death, matched Auld's dental features. However, Auld said that he had left Duffy in the company of someone named "Mark", who was never identified. The jury returned a majority verdict of "not proven" in November 1992.

Aftermath

Threatening phone calls

In 1994, Auld was convicted of making threatening phone calls to two former friends, and sentenced to 240 hours community service. He admitted telling one of them "Patrick, you thought Amanda was the last. Well, you're next, after Caroline."

Civil action

In 1995, Duffy's parents, Joe and Kathleen, sued Auld in civil court, where the standard of evidence is lower. Auld did not contest the lawsuit and the couple were awarded a £50,000 payout. This amount was never paid.

Calls to scrap "not proven" verdict

Following the verdict in the criminal trial, Duffy's parents launched a high-profile campaign for the "not proven" verdict to be abolished in

Scots law Scots law () is the legal system of Scotland. It is a hybrid or mixed legal system containing civil law and common law elements, that traces its roots to a number of different historical sources. Together with English law and Northern Ireland l ...

. A national petition was launched at an event in Glasgow addressed by Joe Duffy. In 1993, the couple's

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

, George Robertson, launched the ''Criminal Procedure (Abolition Of Not Proven Verdict) (Scotland) Bill'' in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

to scrap the verdict, though its likelihood of success was considered slim. The Duffys' campaign also increased pressure on the

Scottish Office The Scottish Office was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom from 1885 until 1999, exercising a wide range of government functions in relation to Scotland under the control of the Secretary of State for Scotland. Following the e ...

, which eventually launched a consultation on scrapping the "not proven" verdict in 1994. MP

John Home Robertson John David Home Robertson (born 5 December 1948) is a retired Labour politician in Scotland. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Berwick and East Lothian and East Lothian from 1978 to 2001 and a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for ...

, in a 1995 bid to scrap the verdict, praised "Kathleen and Joe Duffy for the thoughtful and constructive campaign that they have been waging". When the

Scottish Parliament The Scottish Parliament ( gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Pairlament) is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood area of the capital city, Edinburgh, it is frequently referred to by the metonym Holyro ...

debated scrapping the verdict in 2016, the Duffy case was cited by MSP

Michael McMahon Michael E. McMahon (born September 12, 1957) is an American politician and attorney serving as the District Attorney for Richmond County, which is coextensive with Staten Island. A member of the Democratic Party, McMahon is a former U.S. Represen ...

in support of scrapping the verdict.

Bid for retrial

After the introduction of the ''

Double Jeopardy (Scotland) Act 2011 The Double Jeopardy (Scotland) Act 2011 is an Act of the Scottish Parliament which received Royal Assent on 27 April 2011. and came into force on 28 November 2011. The Act creates a statutory basis for the rule against trying a person twice for t ...

'', which allows for a person to be tried twice for the same crime in certain circumstances,

Strathclyde Police Strathclyde Police was the territorial police force responsible for the Scottish council areas of Argyll and Bute, City of Glasgow, East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshir ...

reopened an investigation into Duffy's murder in 2012 because they believed that "certain people have information in relation to Amanda's murder that they are withholding, perhaps from a sense of misguided loyalty".

Police Scotland Police Scotland ( gd, Poileas Alba), officially the Police Service of Scotland (), is the national police force of Scotland. It was formed in 2013, through the merging of eight regional police forces in Scotland, as well as the specialist service ...

's cold case unit later re-examined the crime on the instruction of the

Crown Office The Crown Office, also known (especially in official papers) as the Crown Office in Chancery, is a section of the Ministry of Justice (formerly the Lord Chancellor's Department). It has custody of the Great Seal of the Realm, and has certain ad ...

. In 2015, prosecutors launched a bid under the Act to re-try Auld for the murder. However, the bid was rejected by judges in February 2016. Jim Govan, the chief forensic scientist at the original trial, then went on public record, saying the jury got the verdict wrong and there was more than enough evidence to convict.Lynn McPherson
The jury got it wrong: Amanda Duffy murder scene investigators break silence on not proven case
'' Daily Record'', 28 February, 2016 Auld died of cancer in July 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duffy, Amanda, Murder of 1990s missing person cases 1992 in Scotland 1992 murders in the United Kingdom Female murder victims Formerly missing people Missing person cases in Scotland Murder in Glasgow Unsolved murders in Scotland