Missing Margaret ‘was murdered by carers who kept claiming her benef its for 20 years’
TWO carers abducted and murdered a vulnerable woman and claimed her benefits for 20 years, a court heard yesterday.
Edward Cairney and Avril Jones are accused of killing Margaret Fleming, who has allegedly not been seen since 1999.
It is claimed that the pair locked Miss Fleming in a room, assaulted her, cut her hair and bound her arms and wrists with tape at their home, Seacroft, in Inverkip, Renfrewshire, between 1997 and 2000.
They are accused of killing her by means unknown between December 1999 and January 2000.
The pair appeared at the High Court in Glasgow yesterday, where they denied charges they abducted and murdered Miss Fleming and fraudulently claimed £182,000 in benefits by pretending to Department for Work and Pensions officials that she was alive.
They also face two charges of attempting to defeat the ends of justice by boarding a train to London on October 25 last year, with £3,500 in cash and keys to a safe deposit box that contained £27,000.
Cairney is also accused of assaulting another woman, Margaret Cruikshanks, on November 26, 1997, at Seacroft by pushing her against furniture, knocking her to the ground, placing his hands round her neck, compressing her throat, threatening her with violence and repeatedly spitting on her face.
The pair deny all charges against them.
Judge Lord Matthews told jurors that the trial is expected to last eight weeks.
Cairney, 76, appeared in the dock in a wheelchair, while 58-year-old Jones was flanked by G4S security officers during the court hearing.
The court yesterday was shown photographs of the cluttered detached cottage where Margaret Fleming is alleged to have been killed.
The images were taken by crime scene examiner William Ward during a search of the house, which has extensive gardens leading down to the Firth of Clyde.
The jury was shown photographs of the downstairs, including two bedrooms. The rooms – although cluttered with junk – each contained a made-up bed.
But two rooms upstairs were almost completely filled with books, boxes and tins.
Many of the rooms were said to be uninhabitable as they were stacked to the ceiling with boxes when police searched the house on November 1, 2016, and a bonfire had been built in the back garden.
Prosecutor Iain McSporran, QC, asked Mr Ward, who photographed the cottage on November 1, 2016: ‘What were the rooms upstairs like?’
Mr Ward replied: ‘Just filled with items.’
When asked if there was any obvious sign that anyone was using the upstairs rooms to live and sleep in, Mr Ward said: ‘No.’
He also confirmed that there was no bed or bedding in any of the upstairs rooms. Referring to the state of the house, the prosecutor asked Mr Ward: ‘Have you ever seen anything quite like it?
He replied: ‘No.’ He added: ‘There was a large bay window in a state of considerable disrepair. The window appeared to be missing.’
When asked if someone would be able to ‘just walk into that’, Mr Ward replied: ‘You would have to climb into it.’
Another scene examiner, Petra Sharp, also said none of the upstairs rooms appeared to have been in use as a bedroom.
The trial, before judge Lord Matthews, continues.
‘Never seen anything like it’