A joint probe has been announced into the deaths of a double killer and a sex offender who were the first prisoners to die from Covid-19 in 2020.
Francis McCarthy, 59, who was jailed for life in 1985 for the cold-blooded murder of 26-year-old Thomas McKirdy in Paisley, died on April 12, 2020, in Glasgow Royal Infirmary after being rushed to hospital from HMP Low Moss.
The thug had been released early after stabbing 18-year-old victim Thomas Mellon to death and was recalled to prison twice before dying behind bars.
His death came just a few days after John Angus who was was an inmate at Saughton jail in Edinburgh. The 66-year-old sex offender died on April 9 at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.
Both men died after contracting coronavirus while in legal custody amid the coronavirus pandemic which spread across the world in 2020.
Procurator Fiscal Andy Shanks announced this week that a Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) will be carried out into the deaths. The preliminary hearing will take place on January 14 with a full hearing due on August 18 next year at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.
McCarthy was just 16 when killed his first victim as he was walking to shops in Paisley, stabbing him through the heart with a pen-knife in 1977 after a row over a girl.
He was handed a five-year stretch in a young offender’s institute but was back on the streets after just three years. He struck again five years after his release as he murdered his friend Thomas McKirdy.
In February 1985, he was jailed for life for the murder and gave no clear reason during his trial as to why he savagely stabbed Mr McKirdy.
McCarthy was released by the parole board in 2002 but was back behind bars following a violent row with his partner in 2009.
Prison sources said he was released once more in 2017 but was recalled to jail just three months later. In 2020 they said his death was a “suspected case of Covid-19″.
John Angus who died at HMP Edinburgh was the first Scottish prisoner whose death was linked to coronavirus.
In 2012, Angus was found guilty of drugging a 21-year-old woman and, while she was asleep, removed her clothing and exposing himself.
The sex offender was previously convicted of tying up and gagging a primary school head teacher in Easter Ross and abducting a school cleaner at the same school at knife point in 1994.
Angus, who was in the same hall as serial-killer Peter Tobin, was once branded a dangerous man who posed “a significant risk to the public in general and adult females in particular”.
Prison sources said Angus was “in a bad way” when he was rushed to hospital in 2020 after he collapsed in the shower and was discovered to have a temperature.
Procurator Fiscal Andy Shanks said: “The Lord Advocate considers that the deaths of Francis Peter McCarthy and John Hay Angus occurred in similar circumstances, both deaths being attributable to the COVID-19 virus contracted whilst in legal custody and as such a Fatal Accident Inquiry is mandatory.
“The lodging of the First Notice enables FAI proceedings to commence under the direction of the Sheriff.”
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