TAYSIDE MURDERER DIES IN JAIL 49 YEARS AFTER KILLING TEENAGER
Brian Mearns died behind bars at HMP Glenochil at the beginning of January 2026.He was 67 years old.
Mearns had murdered Linda Batchelor in 1977 after she went out for a carry-out meal in Dundee.
The Scottish Prison Service confirmed his death, and police alongside the Procurator Fiscal will review the case.
A fatal accident inquiry will be held.
The gruesome killing involved Mearns driving a stake through her head after brutally beating her.
She was naked from the waist down and died en route to hospital.
Post-mortem tests showed sexual injuries, but no evidence of intercourse.
Mearns, who had been drinking before the murder, later went to a public toilet to clean himself.
The High Court sentenced him to life imprisonment in the same year.
Mearns had additional criminal issues, including going on the run in 1999 after failing to return to HMP Edinburgh following an unsupervised work placement.
He was listed as one of Scotland’s most dangerous criminals and served 26 years before being released on parole in 2003, though continued offending.
In 2017, after 40 years in prison, he was released to supported accommodation but returned to custody shortly after for urinating outside a nursery.
Mearns was originally from Elgin.
