The current BBC running of Limbs in the Loch, a shocking and sad true crime docuseries detailing Barry Wallace's tragic murder at the hands of William Beggs, has viewers gripped.
It details how on one chilly December morning in 1999, Beggs lured an 18-year-old Wallace back to a flat in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire. What followed next was a brutal assault and murder, after which Beggs dismembered Wallace's body and hid his torso and limbs inside bin bags in Loch Lomond, in southern Scotland. Wallace's head was discovered, also inside a plastic bag, eight days later and 60 miles away on a beach in Ayrshire.
Two years later, Beggs was given a life sentence for the crime – and now, 26 years on from Wallace's death, killer Beggs is still calling to be released from his prison cell and continues to launch appeals. In fact, he's launched so many denied requests that he's even been dubbed the 'Whinging Killer' by some.
Here's what we know about William Beggs and his life today.
Who is William Beggs, the Limbs in the Loch murderer?
Dubbed the 'Limbs in the Loch' killer, William Beggs is a Northern Ireland-born convicted murderer, whose heinous actions shocked the public and left an indelible mark on Scotland's criminal history. He previously worked as a college lecturer and became involved in politics, serving as the regional chairman for the Federation of Conservative Students.
It's said that Beggs disliked the fact that he himself was gay and deliberately targeted fellow homosexual men.
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In 1999, he lured an unsuspecting teenage boy, Barry Wallace, who had been on a Christmas night out with his supermarket colleagues, back to his flat in Kilmarnock, where he brutally attacked, sexually assaulted and killed him, before dismembering his body and dumping parts of it into Loch Lomond. Eight days after some unsuspecting divers found Wallace's remains, his head washed up on a beach in Ayrshire, some sixty miles away after being thrown off a ferry as Beggs travelled to Belfast.
At the time of his sentencing, The Guardian reported that Beggs kept Wallace's head for two days before throwing it in the sea.
The gruesome nature of the attack meant the case quickly became high profile.
Who did William Beggs kill?
Tragically, Beggs took the life of Barry Wallace, a teenager who at the time worked as a shelf stacker in a supermarket and who was hoping to join the Navy one day.
However, Wallace was not Beggs' first victim: he had a history of violent behaviour, including a previous conviction for the murder of another young man, Barry Oldham, in 1987, which was later overturned. Oldham's body was discovered over the North York Moors, and an attempt had been made to cut his arms and legs off.
Beggs claimed he was acting in self defence and after it was ruled that the judge had allowed evidence to be shared during the trial about Beggs' other known violent incidents, the court of appeal quashed the murder conviction – allowing him to once again be a free man.
Tony Fitzgerald, the former head of North Yorkshire CID, who led the case against Beggs for Oldham's murder later said, "When we caught Beggs all those years ago, we seriously thought we had caught a serial killer in the making. We thought we were lucky because we had managed to catch him after his first killing."
In addition to this, Beggs was jailed in 1991 for six years after attacking Brian McQuillan, who he met in a gay bar, with a razor.
Where is William Beggs now?
Police raided William Beggs' flat on 17 December 1999, two days after Wallace's head was discovered on the beach, and he fled to Amsterdam after hearing his name on the radio. Inside his home, police found evidence of Wallace's murder, including blood stains. A fortnight later, Beggs turned himself in to the Dutch authorities.
In 2001, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 20 years before being eligible for parole. The trial was one of the most high-profile in Scotland at the time.
While December 2019 marked the initial end to his 20-year minimum prison sentence, Beggs' parole was denied (not for the first or last time).
The Parole Board said he still posed a "high risk of sexual reoffending", had not undergone any sort of "offence-focused work" while in jail and was too dangerous to be released to the public. As of today, Beggs remains behind bars in a high-security prison.
He continues to make headlines due to his frequent legal challenges and attempts to appeal his conviction – for which the numerous associated court cases have cost the taxpayer more than £1 million, further fuelling public outrage against him.
Jennifer Savin is Cosmopolitan UK's multiple award-winning Features Editor, who was crowned Digital Journalist of the Year for her work tackling the issues most important to young women. She regularly covers breaking news, cultural trends, health, the royals and more, using her esteemed connections to access the best experts along the way. She's grilled everyone from high-profile politicians to A-list celebrities, and has sensitively interviewed hundreds of people about their real life stories. In addition to this, Jennifer is widely known for her own undercover investigations and campaign work, which includes successfully petitioning the government for change around topics like abortion rights and image-based sexual abuse. Jennifer is also a published author, documentary consultant (helping to create BBC’s Deepfake Porn: Could You Be Next?) and a patron for Y.E.S. (a youth services charity). Alongside Cosmopolitan, Jennifer has written for The Times, Women’s Health, ELLE and numerous other publications, appeared on podcasts, and spoken on (and hosted) panels for the Women of the World Festival, the University of Manchester and more. In her spare time, Jennifer is a big fan of lipstick, leopard print and over-ordering at dinner. Follow Jennifer on Instagram, X or LinkedIn.
