A notorious killer who bludgeoned a brother and sister to death in Glasgow in 1976 has been freed after almost five decades in secure mental health units. Alexander Millar, 29 at the time of the crimes, tied and gagged John McMonigle, 13, and his sister Irene, 12, before beating them to death with a hammer during a botched robbery at their home in Govan. He also indecently assaulted the 12-year-old girl.
Millar avoided prison but was detained in secure mental health units for 49 years, technically classed as a patient rather than a prisoner. His detention was reviewed regularly, but he was deemed so dangerous that he could not be released for nearly five decades. Now a mental health tribunal in England has ruled he is fit for release.
The victims' sister, Liz McMonigle, now 58, expressed her distress. 'He is an animal and it repulses and sickens me that he has been freed,' she said. 'We have no right to know where he is. I retain to this day a fear and dread he will somehow come after me, no matter how unlikely it may seem. The anxiety and extreme distress this brings cannot easily be put into words.'
Liz and her father John discovered the bodies after returning to their tenement flat from moving belongings to a new home. 'The scene when we went into the flat and found John and Irene was unspeakable,' she recalled. 'The memory of my dad trying to save them also lives with me.'
Millar was initially charged with murder but admitted culpable homicide due to diminished responsibility and was ordered to be detained without limit of time. He spent nearly 30 years in the State Hospital at Carstairs before being transferred to a secure psychiatric unit in Ayrshire for 15 years. He was moved to a secure unit in England in 2022, a move the family feared could lead to his release.
