A brutal East Lothian murderer is to feature in a chilling new true crime series that will be aired on the Sky Crime channel in the future. The series is called Forensics: Catching a Killer and looks into notorious UK murder cases and how they were finally unraveled due to advance forensic science.
John 'Jock' Reid was a Dunbar local and fisherman in the East Coast seaside town in the 1980s. In 1999 he carried out a horrific crime in the north of the capital and was put behind bars before later dying of Covid.
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In 1999 the callous killer brutally tortured, sexually assaulted and murdered an Edinburgh woman in her own home. The sex beast carried out the vicious attack on 46-year-old Elaine Collie at her home in the Muirhouse.
Reid conned his way into his neighbour Elaine’s flat in in April 1999 and then hit her on the head with a weapon, tied her to a bed and gagged her with a towel before sexually assaulting her.
He then tortured her with electric shocks from a blanket. Before suffocating her, the monster forced Elaine to reveal her PIN number. He stole jewellery from her home and £350 from her bank account.
At the High Court in Edinburgh in October 1999, Reid was jailed for life after pleading guilty to her murder. In an interview with the Daily Record in 2012 devastated brother of the victim Jason said he hoped the killer would die in prison so he could not harm anyone else.
He expressed fears of previous sex attacks carried out by the monster indicated a pattern of behaviour that meant he should never be free and said: “People don’t just wake up one day and torture and murder their neighbour and the information we have researched shows attacks on lone women going back to 1975.
“Our concern is that rehabilitation cannot be complete unless the people working with Reid have the full background picture.”
The evil murderer died on July 31 2021 aged 63 at HMP Glenochil. A death certificate showed that Reid had been diagnosed with Covid-19 and viral pneomontis” - known as pneumonia.
While researching for the show a producer posted in a local East Lothian group writing: "We are currently still in production for Sky Crime's 'Forensics: Catching The Killer'. For one episode we are focusing on the murder of Elaine Collie who was killed by Dunbar native John 'Jock' Reid.
"I am currently looking for photographs of John Jock Reid, I understand he was a fisherman at the harbour in the 1980's. If anyone has any."
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Production company True North describes the truth crime show as: "A series tells the story of eight murder cases – each one resolved thanks in part to the role of forensic science."
Then explaining: "In each episode a single case is unpacked in detail to discover how the forensic work helped catch a killer.
"Telling these true crime stories are those closest to the case – from the forensic officers and experts, police officers, family members, journalists, witnesses and friends."
Adding: "These voices take the viewer through the various twists and turns of each case, explain how the investigation unfolded and how ultimately forensic science helped lead to the killer’s capture and conviction."
The first series launched in 2021 and was a huge hit looking into notorious murder cases such as Zahid Younis responsible for the freezer murders, Joseph Kappen known as the Saturday night strangler and Michael Clarke the martial arts murderer.
You can find out more here.
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