Fife killer Rab Thomson is being considered for parole following his 17-year sentence for murdering his son and disabled daughter.
Thomson took the most unimaginably cruel revenge on his estranged wife June for finally finding the strength to leave him after three decades of violence.
The monster slaughtered seven-year-old Ryan and daughter Michelle, 25, in the bedroom of their Buckhaven home, stabbing them dozens of times and posing their dead bodies like angels praying, leaving them for their mother to find.
Now June, 63, is urging the parole board not to grant Thomson his freedom.
The news has shattered June, who still lives in fear at a secret address far away from the Fife home where the murders took place.
June told The Sunday Post: “I’ve lived in terror of this day coming, knowing that Rab would apply for parole the second he possibly could.
“He killed Michelle and Ryan on May 3, 2008, and the justice system allowed him to apply for parole 17 years and two days after that date.
“I have been informed that he has done that.
“There has not been a moment since he murdered our children and posed them for me to find, that I have not had to relive the horror of seeing them lying there, lifeless.
“Rab always warned me that if I dared to leave him, that I would regret that day for the rest of my life.”
June said if she had known what Thomson was planning, she’d have put up with Thomson’s vile abuse in order to protect her children.
“I still hear their screams of terror in my nightmares when they realised it was their own father stabbing them to death”, she said.
‘I tried to leave him dozens of times’
The couple had been married for almost 30 years, but the relationship was marred by Rab’s explosive temper and jealousy.
The family moved from Kirkcaldy to Buckhaven.
June said: “I tried to leave him dozens of times, but he would always find me and drag me back, often by my hair.
“He used his fists and feet to batter me into submission”.
The abuse was continual and impacted every facet of June’s life.
“I was never allowed to wear what I wanted or go where I wanted. Rab controlled everything I did”, she said.
“When I finally managed to find the strength to properly leave and set up a new home for me and the children, Rab said he would make me pay.”
Ultimately, the price of June’s freedom was the unbearable loss of her beautiful children.
“As he had always been a supportive father, I never dreamed he would take away the thing most precious to me, our children.”
‘The father he worshipped turned on him’
When June became pregnant with Michelle, Rab, now 67, still could not keep his violent hands off her.
She said: “I remember there being a row about something. I ended up being thrown down the stairs.
“When Michelle was born, we were told that she would never be like other girls.
“Michelle remained like a child even when she became older, and in her last moments alive she would never have understood why her dad was hurting her with a knife.
“Ryan was a very late baby. He would have been as confused as Michelle when the father he worshipped had turned on him, stabbing him again and again and again.”
After murdering them, Thomson put the two children to bed, posing them like they were praying.
When June arrived at the family home to collect the kids, the monster lay listening to June’s screams as she found Michelle and then Ryan lifeless and covered in blood.
June said: “Rab made a pathetic attempt to injure himself. In the stress of seeing my babies slaughtered, I initially thought he had killed himself.
“When the ambulance men and police carried him from the house, he looked at me and smiled.
“He was telling me that he had kept his promise to make me pay.
“I’ve lost count of the number of times I prayed that Rab had taken my life rather than the children.”
Fight for parole reforms
Thomson was sentenced to 17 years in jail in 2008 for the deaths at the High Court in Edinburgh.
June was shattered at how lenient the sentence was.
She said: “No amount of time in jail would suffice for what he had done, but just 17 years for what he did to my children was not nearly long enough.
“All this time I have lived in dread of him getting free.
“Now that day is becoming a reality.
“After years of beatings, I am almost blind. I also suffer from severe mobility and balance problems.
“I would not even see Rab coming for me if he decided to keep the rest of his promise.
“I will be condemned to live in abject terror once he is freed.
“I have been told the parole board will notify me once they make their decision when they will grant him parole.”
The Courier’s A Voice for Victims campaign is calling for reforms to the parole system in Scotland.
We want the rights of victims put at the heart of the process.
Due to our campaign, parole reform is now being considered on the upcoming Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform bill.
Conversation