EXCLUSIVE: Patti's mum prays for her daughter's body to be found
The family of a murdered Paisley mum is exclusively telling Clyde 1 about the family's relief that her killer has been convicted.
Last updated 7th Oct 2021
The family of a murdered Paisley mum is exclusively telling Clyde 1 of the family's relief, after her killer was convicted.
In an exclusive interview with our senior reporter, Natalie Crawford-Goodwin, Patti Henry's mum Ann says she's relieved 71 year-old George Metcalff will no longer be able to hurt other vulnerable women.
The pensioner's been found guilty of Patti's murder, and of raping her and several other women over the course of five decades. Her family says he isolated Patti from them and took advantage of her vulnerabilities while they were neighbours in the Glenburn area of Paisley.
The 46 year-old's body has never been recovered and Ann says all she wants now is for her daughter to be found so that they can bring her home.
'I'm thanking god for that conviction'
Reacting to today's verdict Ann said: "I am thanking God for that conviction, but we'll never have Patti back, and that's bigger than any conviction. But I do want to see him off the streets. I don't want to see another young female become his neighbour or be taken advantage of like Patti was... he is a predator.
"I am delighted for a conviction, I would get down on my two knees and thank God, but not to have Patti back, and not to hear her side of everything that was done to her, and that her relatively young life was taken is awful."
Patti's body has never been found
Despite police searches concentrated on areas on the Gleniffer Braes in Paisley, where Metcalff was known to frequent, Patti's body has never been recovered.
Ann said: "We need a place to go and talk to her. I talk to her anyway especially after a hard day like this and I say 'see what you've caused!' I just want her there.
"Every night, without fail, I'll say my wee prayers in bed, and I'll put my hands like that wraps her arms round herself, and I'll say to her 'cuddle your mammy, hen. Cuddle your mammy', and it gives me a wee warmth.
"I would be prepared to beg him to let her home, but he's not that type of person. That's his ace up his sleeve, I don't think he'll tell. To have her home, it would mean everything. We need her home."
Patti's cousin Jacci added: "We just want her home. Her family needs somewhere they know she's at rest that they can visit. It's torture. It's torture for her mum. It's torture for us all to think she's lying somewhere and we don't know where she is.
"It's just so we can start grieving properly. To know that the person responsible in behind bars and can't hurt anyone else and that we have somewhere to go to visit, to see Patti... it would mean everything."
Metcalff a 'predator' who isolated Patti
During the two-and-a-half week trial Patricia's family, including her mum Ann and her daughter Alannah, told the court of the abuse Patti suffered at the hands of Metcalff and told of how she became a different person who was afraid to do things like take public transport because of his manipulation.
Ann spoke about a dream she had about her daughter's death: "A dream I had was about her hanging. I could see her hanging in this dream, and it woke me, screaming, because her face was dead. She'd kept telling Alannah and different people that he kept putting his arms around her neck.
"He is a predator, a total predator. And I knew she wasn't with him in a sexual relationship."
"Control, control, control. My Patti would think nothing about getting the bus into town, or whatever, and she couldn't go for the bus. I'd say to her 'What's wrong with you?' and she would say 'Oh I couldn't go on a bus now', and I'd say 'I don't get that'."
"He was always there, and nobody thought anything about that at the beginning, it was maybe a wee repair job, but as the years rolled on, he was never away, and was plying her with alcohol."