The last memory David Taylor has of his policeman dad George is a kiss on the cheek and a cheery wave goodbye as he went off to work 46 years ago. Less than an hour later, PC Taylor lay dying after a frenzied attack by two of Scotland’s most notorious killers – Robert Mone and Thomas McCulloch – who had escaped from incarceration at the nearby State Hospital in Carstairs.
Now David, who was just eight years old when his dad died, is speaking for the first time about the brutal murder, his family’s fury after McCulloch was set free and their new fight to get his father a posthumous bravery medal. David said he died a hero, saving a busload of passengers on November 30, 1976, when Mone, 27, and McCulloch, 26, broke out of the hospital after murdering a nurse and another inmate.
But he has received no recognition for his selflessness and bravery, while three officers who eventually arrested the pair in England after their murderous spree were given the Queen’s Gallantry Medal. Sales manager David said: “It is an absolute disgrace that my father’s bravery and heroism has not been recognised after almost 46 years.”
