Robert Mone is linked to two separate events, in 1967 and 1976. On November 1, 1967, a woman named Nanette Hanson was killed at a school in Dundee. Mone was charged with murder and other offenses, but at the High Court in Dundee on January 23, 1968, he was found unfit to plead on grounds of insanity, and was ordered to be detained without limit of time at the State Hospital in Carstairs, Lanarkshire. On November 30, 1976, he left the State Hospital together with another patient, Thomas McCulloch. Three people died that night: Neil McLellan, Iain Simpson and George Taylor. Mone pleaded guilty in 1977 at the High Court in Edinburgh to the killing of George Taylor and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
The legal position therefore differs between the two events. The 1967 death ended in a finding about his mental state, not a conviction. The 1976 deaths ended in guilty pleas and life sentences. For the 1977 proceedings the date, the judge, the exact charges and the exact words of the pleas are not on record.
Nanette Hanson was 26. She was killed on November 1, 1967, at a school in Dundee. Mone was arrested the same day. His date and place of birth and his upbringing are not on record.
Mone was charged with murder and with other offenses.
The case came before the High Court in Dundee on January 23, 1968, before Lord Thomson. Mone was 19. The hearing lasted 18 minutes. Two psychiatrists, Dr. Peter Aungle and Dr. James Fleming McHarg, gave evidence that he was unfit to plead and could not instruct his defense. Dr. McHarg said that Mone could not appreciate that his acts were wrong at the time. The finding was schizophrenia that "developed insidiously over approximately two years."
The court did not try Mone. It found him unfit to plead on grounds of insanity, and Lord Thomson ordered that he be detained without limit of time at the State Mental Hospital at Carstairs. Mone answered the order with the words "Good for you."
Because there was no trial and no verdict, there was no conviction in 1968.
The State Hospital at Carstairs held patients sent there by the courts. Mone was one of them from 1968. Thomas McCulloch was another. McCulloch had been sent to Carstairs indefinitely in 1970 after attempting to kill two people.
By 1976 both men were what the hospital called parole patients, with some freedom of movement inside the hospital.
On November 30, 1976, Mone and McCulloch left the State Hospital. Three people died that night. They were Neil McLellan, who was 46; Iain Simpson, who was 40; and George Taylor, who was 27 and the father of six children. Three other men were injured. The second name is also given as Ian, and the first as MacLellan.
Both escapees were back in custody before the day ended. On December 1, 1976, Mone and McCulloch appeared at the Sheriff Court at Lanark on a charge of murder. They were committed for further examination and sent to Barlinnie Prison. The Secretary of State told the Commons that criminal proceedings were pending.
Sheriff-Principal Reid was appointed to hold a public local inquiry into the escape, with three assessors. He sent an interim report to the Secretary of State on July 18, 1977. It recommended bringing back parole inside the hospital, with photographic passes for patients on parole, and resuming the hospital's educational work. The final report was published on November 15, 1977, with 47 recommendations, mostly on management and security. The most important was a second perimeter fence around the west wing. The Secretary of State accepted the findings in principle and said up to 200,000 pounds in extra funds would be made available.
The inquiry described Mone and McCulloch as two "sick protagonists." Mone has since disputed that description. Letters in which he gave his own version of the night were due to be published in a book by the journalist David Leslie.
The two men were tried in 1977 at the High Court in Edinburgh. Mone pleaded guilty to the killing of George Taylor and was given a life sentence. McCulloch pleaded guilty to the killings of Neil McLellan and Iain Simpson and was also sentenced to life imprisonment. The judge ruled that both men should remain in custody "for the rest of their natural lives," the first sentences of their kind in Scotland.
The names of the judge and counsel, the date of the hearing and the exact legal wording of the charges and pleas are not on record.
The whole-life terms did not stand. In 2002 Mone and McCulloch used human rights legislation to overturn them, and a minimum term of 30 years was set in each case. That made both men eligible for parole in 2006.
Mone served his sentence in Scottish prisons. At Perth Prison on May 11, 1981, he left his escort while working in the prison laundry and climbed onto the roof, where he stayed for about eight hours. A prison officer talked him down that evening. He damaged the roof but did not threaten or harm staff, and there was no risk of an escape.
In 1994 an extra six months was added to his life sentence for an assault on a fellow prisoner. That prisoner's later claim for damages against the Scottish Prison Service was rejected at Perth Sheriff Court. In 2008 Mone was returned to maximum security after prison managers suspected he was planning to escape.
He has been called Scotland's longest-serving prisoner. Around the fortieth anniversary of the escape he was still in prison. A man who had known George Taylor said that Mone should die in jail, and a Member of the Scottish Parliament made the same call. The Scottish Prison Service said that any release would be for the parole board and that it does not discuss individual prisoners. A possible move to an open prison was thought unlikely.
McCulloch was released from Castle Huntly open prison, near Dundee, in 2013, after the Scottish parole board approved his release. The board's decision was unanimous, and ministers, including the Justice Secretary, had opposed release. He was 65. The board noted no violence, drug use or drinking since he was taken into custody about 35 years earlier. He had been granted day release and more than 100 unsupervised visits to Dundee over six years.
Scottish Conservative politicians called for tougher sentencing after his release, and the Scottish Government replied that courts already had the power to impose a life sentence meaning life.
George Taylor's age is also given as 30.
A June 1979 trial at Dundee, with a recommended minimum of 15 years, was the trial of his father, not of Robert Mone.
November 1, 1967: Nanette Hanson is killed at a school in Dundee; Mone is arrested.
January 23, 1968: High Court, Dundee: found unfit to plead on grounds of insanity; ordered detained without limit of time at the State Hospital, Carstairs.
1970: Thomas McCulloch is sent to Carstairs.
November 30, 1976: Mone and McCulloch leave the State Hospital; Neil McLellan, Iain Simpson and George Taylor die.
December 1, 1976: both appear at Lanark Sheriff Court on a charge of murder and are sent to Barlinnie; the House of Commons debates the incident.
July 18, 1977: interim report of the public inquiry.
1977: High Court, Edinburgh: guilty pleas; life imprisonment.
November 15, 1977: final inquiry report published, with 47 recommendations.
May 11, 1981: Mone climbs onto the roof at Perth Prison and is talked down after about eight hours.
1994: six months added to his life sentence.
2002: whole-life terms reversed; 30-year minimum set.
2008: returned to maximum security.
2013: McCulloch is released from Castle Huntly.
Around the fortieth anniversary of the escape: Mone is still in prison.