- Published
When Diane Watson was stabbed to death in the playground of a Glasgow school in 1991, her best friend Pauline was standing by her side.
Pauline watched as 16-year-old Diane collapsed after the knife attack by another pupil and then helped to carry her across the road to the arms of her parents who lived in an upstairs flat within view of the school.
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who → publish → school
Diane's murder would not only devastate her family, her friends and the local community, its shockwaves would go on to be felt for decades.
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shockwaves → devastate → decades
Warning - this story contains descriptions of violence, death and suicide.
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story → contain → violence
Thirty-five years later, Pauline Love Thomson has spoken for the first time about the trauma of that April morning when she was just 16.
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she → speak → morning
In a new BBC Scotland podcast, Crime Next Door: The Playground Murder, she relives the day 15-year-old Barbara Glover came to Whitehill secondary school in Glasgow's east end armed with a large kitchen knife.
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Glover → relive → knife
Pauline describes how a large crowd of schoolkids gathered round as Glover shouted at Diane while waving the knife - and the chilling moment she dealt the deadly blow.
"She actually let out a growl when she stepped forward," Pauline says.
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Pauline → describe → growl
She stabbed her and people started just moving away.
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people → stab → her
Everybody just vanished.
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Everybody → vanish → ?
I went over, I just put my arm around her [Diane's] shoulder because I hadn't actually appreciated the damage that the knife would have done.
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knife → go → that
Pauline tried to help her bleeding friend get home to the flat across the road she shared with her mum, dad and brother Alan.
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she → try → mum
She recalls Diane saying: "I don't believe it.
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I → recall → it
She stabbed me."
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She → stab → me
It was only a short distance to the flat but Pauline felt her friend slumping even before they reached the school gate.
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they → feel → gate
With the help of two other girls she got Diane across the road but by the time she reached the entrance to the flat, she collapsed.
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she → get → flat
Her father Jim, who had been alerted by another girl battering on his door, ran down and took his daughter in his arms.
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who → alert → arms
He carried her upstairs and desperately tried to revive her as her mother Margaret and 15-year-old brother looked on in horror.
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mother → carry → horror
Jim tried to give her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, Pauline said.
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Pauline → try → resuscitation
"I'm shouting, 'you're not doing it right'," she said.
"
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she → shout → it
I could hear her gurgling.
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her → hear → ?
Diane Watson was later declared dead at Glasgow Royal Infirmary and Barbara Glover handed herself into the police.
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Glover → declare → police
Three months later, Pauline was the first to give evidence at Glover's trial.
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Pauline → give → trial
She told the court that in the days leading up to the stabbing Glover had been hassling Diane.
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Glover → tell → Diane
It was only later, she said, that she found out it was because Glover thought Diane had been going out with her ex-boyfriend.
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Diane → say → boyfriend
This had culminated in a fight outside a shop which ended with Glover's hoodie being pulled up and her bra exposed, making her feel humiliated.
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her → culminate → shop
The following morning the schoolgirl put a kitchen knife in her bag and took the bus to school where she stabbed Diane to death.
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she → put → death
Pauline said Diane was not interested in the boy and that they barely knew Glover, who was in the year below them at school.
However, when Glover took the stand she told the court she had been bullied by Diane for over a year.
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she → say → year
Pauline and others gave evidence saying Diane had never treated Glover badly.
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Diane → give → Glover
The jury unanimously passed a guilty verdict on Glover and because she was under 16 she was detained without limit of time, meaning there was no fixed date for her release.
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she → pass → release
It was a controversial sentence which led to two journalists – Jack McLean in The Herald and Meg Henderson in Marie Claire – writing campaigning pieces about the unfairness of children being detained never knowing when they would see freedom.
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they → lead → freedom
Neither had attended the trial, but they both latched on to Glover's testimony that Diane was a bully.
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Diane → attend → testimony
McLean went further, introducing a class element to his claims.
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McLean → go → claims
He wrote that Diane "came from a background which was rather upper working class" and that she had the "smart white socks of the daughter of the Labour aristocracy".
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she → write → aristocracy
Pauline said nothing could be further from the truth.
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nothing → say → truth
Margaret Watson was a dinner lady and her husband Jim was doing casual shifts as a postman.
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Jim → do → postman
The articles compounded the Watson family's pain at their loss and they felt Diane was being victim-blamed and besmirched.
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Diane → compound → loss
Margaret wanted to sue but was advised they had no legal redress as it was not possible to defame the dead.
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it → want → dead
Alan, who was incredibly close to his sister, struggled deeply with her death and how she was portrayed in the media.
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she → struggle → media
Less than two years after Diane was killed, he took his own life.
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he → kill → life
Pauline said newspaper and magazine cuttings about Diane were found in his hand, alongside a note saying he was sorry but he just wanted to be with his sister.
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he → say → sister
The catastrophe inside the Watsons' home sparked a decades' long crusade from Margaret.
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catastrophe → spark → Margaret
…and 19 more, not listed.
The Aporia
