Limbs in the Loch killer William Beggs has been told how he could be freed from jail despite a decision to refuse him parole.

Beggs, jailed for life after the killing and dismemberment of 18-year-old Barry Wallace 24 years ago, has lost a legal challenge against the Parole Board for Scotland at the Court of Session in Edinburgh.The 60-year-old, who has consistently failed to take part in rehabilitation schemes, also refuses to admit responsibility for Barry’s murder.

But the judgment revealed details of conditions set by the Parole Board under which Beggs could reapply and be released – including taking part in prison programmes.

It said: “Mr Beggs’ reintroduction back to the community must be done with great care. The tribunal would expect testing to begin with special escorted leave and then increase slowly as was considered appropriate. He would be extensively tested by whatever means are available.

“It is important for him to build up the relationships which will support and monitor him in the community and it is also important that these relationships are fully tested prior to his release.

“Mr Beggs should complete offender-focussed work and then be extensively tested prior to release.”

Supermarket worker Barry vanished on December 5, 1999, after a Christmas night out in Kilmarnock .Beggs took the teenager to his flat and subjected him to a serious sexual assault before murdering him.

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After cutting up his body he disposed of the arms, legs and torso in Loch Lomond and dumped the head from the Troon to Belfast ferry before it washed up on Barassie beach in Ayrshire.

Graeme Pearson, former MSP and head of the Scottish Crime Enforcement Agency, said: “He has refused to engage in any remedial work that might help him identify why he conducted himself in the way that he did.

“It therefore makes it very difficult for the authorities to gauge whether or not he has changed and no longer poses a threat.”

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