Police check out new lead in the hunt for missing Sandy

POLICE are investigating a new lead in the 30-year-old mystery of missing Scots boy Sandy Davidson, the Sunday Express can reveal.

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Missing child Sandy, who disappeared in Ayrshire in 1976

The blonde-haired tot vanished from the garden of his grandmother's home in Irvine, Ayrshire, in 1976, and - despite a huge search operation - no trace of him has ever been found.

Now detectives want to interview a witness who says he was abducted and violently abused by a teenage girl from the same neighbourhood at around the same time.

He believes this individual may have killed Sandy, who was aged three when he disappeared.

The man - who cannot be named for legal reasons - said: "I lived on Gigha Terrace in the Broomlands estate. The next street was Pladda Avenue and then St Kilda Bank, which was where Sandy's parents and grandparents lived.

"There was a rope swing on the river and I had been playing down there with some other kids. I was going back to my house and this lassie ambushed me and dragged me into the bushes.

"She had a kind of den inside a big hedge, like a lair, and you had to crawl to get in it. She smashed me on the head with a rock and did things to me. I remember crying out in terror for my mother. 

"I must have passed out because I'd been missing for a while, about an hour or so, and the locals were out looking for me. The next thing I remember was seeing policemen everywhere and I was being taken to hospital."

I know what happened to me. There was obviously something very, very wrong with this girl

Unnamed witness

The man believes the incident took place in the summer of 1976, following Sandy's disappearance in April of that year, or possibly the following summer.

He added: "Looking back, I think she was like Mary Bell. This lassie was an animal. I don't think the police ever really asked me what happened, they thought she was bullying me or something.

"Five or six days later they took me and my mother to see her parents, who lived on Pladda Avenue. She wasn't there but I remember being absolutely terrified."

His ordeal left him mentally and physically scarred, and in a cruel twist of fate he later became the victim of alleged sexual and physical abuse at a Scottish boarding school.

He explained that he buried the memory of what happened to him as a child until 2012, when a violent assault in his workplace triggered a flood of unhappy recollections.

The man made a statement to a police force in England, who passed on his evidence to colleagues north of the Border.

The alleged incidents at the boarding school have led to a pending prosecution, however he says police in Ayrshire dismissed his evidence in the Sandy Davidson case as "unreliable".

Since then, he has played a key role in setting up the child abuse inquiries at both Westminster and Holyrood, establishing his credentials beyond doubt.

He has also asked the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (PIRC) to look into the matter.

Police Scotland now appear to have reconsidered their position, with a senior CID officer based in Kilmarnock contacting him last week to request an interview.

The man said: "I know what happened to me. There was obviously something very, very wrong with this girl. I have worked with serious offenders in prison and this was a classic case of an extremely violent, aggressive juvenile offender."

He has also been in touch with Sandy's mother, Margaret, and his sister, Donna, who are both hoping for a resolution ahead of next year's 30th anniversary - even if it means their worst fears being confirmed.

Last night, a police spokesman said: "The Sandy Davidson enquiry remains an unresolved case and all information provided to Police Scotland by members of the public is carefully considered and investigated, but unfortunately any line of enquiry investigated to date has yet to provide a resolution to this case.

"Should any additional information on Sandy's disappearance come to light, either now or in the future, it will be fully considered and investigated. Police Scotland remains in regular contact with the family and have kept them fully updated."

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