A NEW documentary is set to reveal the inside story of how police captured one of Glasgow's most infamous serial killers.

Angus Sinclair, who grew up near St George's Cross, raped and strangled teenagers Helen Scott and Christine Eadie after a night out at the World's End pub on Edinburgh's Royal Mile in November 1977.

The 17-year-olds' bodies were found six miles apart in East Lothian. Both women were bound, sexually assaulted and strangled with items of their own clothing.

Glasgow Times: NewsquestNewsquest (Image: Newsquest)

Now a compelling two-part BBC documentary, The Hunt for the World’s End Killers, features new exclusive testimony from detectives and forensic scientists who worked on the investigation, journalists who reported on the case and psychologists who delved into the murders.

The first episode begins in October 1977 and features acclaimed crime author Ian Rankin, who was then a 17-year-old student who was due to start at Edinburgh University. He recounts how the capital was a grim and grey place where underage teenagers could get served in a pub without issue.

He said: “Edinburgh’s got a very dark history but this brought it into the present. The notion that there was a killer or killers on the loose, preying on the innocent, and the fact that the police seemed to be getting nowhere was terrifying."

School pals Helen and Christine went out drinking at the World’s End pub on Edinburgh’s famous Royal Mile but never returned home.

Eyewitnesses said they saw the friends speaking with two unknown men before their disappearance.

The hunt for their killer became one of the biggest manhunts Scotland has ever seen, and as fear gripped the nation, the press began to link the murders with other unsolved killings in Glasgow.

Sinclair was snared in 2004 after BBC's Crimewatch featured the World's End murders and Lothian and Borders Police had enlisted the help of the Forensic Science Service to utilise advances in DNA techniques to finally get their man.

Sinclair was originally acquitted in 2007 in controversial circumstances after legal arguments, but following the amendment of the law of double jeopardy, which would have prevented his retrial, Sinclair was retried in October 2014 and convicted of both murders. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 37 years, the longest sentence by a Scottish court.

Police believe he also killed at least six other women and girls.

The Hunt for the World’s End Killers airs on October 17,  BBC One Scotland HD at 9pm.