Trauma as 'Bible John' is reburied

The body of the man police believe could be "Bible John", one of Scotland's most notorious killers, will be reburied tomorrow amid protests from the dead man's family.

Police exhumed the body of John Irvine McInnes on 1 February for DNA tests, saying that these would take three weeks.

His family claim the delay has caused them "emotional trauma", and that the dead man should be presumed innocent if no "conclusive" new evidence has emerged. Labour MP Jimmy Hood said he is to protest to Scotland's senior law officer, the Lord Advocate, about the police handling of the affair. The family claim police have not kept them abreast of developments and that no conclusive DNA match has been made.

The body of Mr McInnes, who committed suicide at the age of 41, was exhumed from the family grave at Stonehouse, Strathclyde. Police suspected he could be Bible John after scientists looking at long-unsolved murders established a possible DNA link with a woman murdered in Glasgow in 1969.

Helen Puttock was one of three women killed after being picked up at Barrowland ballroom, Glasgow in the late 1960s. All three deaths have been popularly blamed on a lone killer nicknamed Bible John for his fondness for Biblical quotations.