Son recalls finding mum’s body in 1984
A SON told a murder trial yesterday how he broke down the door of his mother’s flat 36 years ago to find her dead.
Martin Cullen, 60, made the horrific discovery of Mary McLaughlin’s body after he called at her Glasgow home.
He could not get an answer and noticed ‘the most horrible smell you could imagine’.
Mr Cullen, one of Miss McLaughlin’s 11 children, told the High Court in Glasgow he obtained a key from a neighbour but was still forced to kick the door in.
His ex-partner June Brittle, since deceased, went inside and came out screaming.
Mr Cullen, from Glasgow, was giving evidence in the trial of Graham McGill, 59, who is accused of murdering Miss McLaughlin.
The 58-year-old was strangled by a strip of cloth wound round her neck three times, the murder trial has heard.
Her body was found on October 2, 1984, five or six days after her death. Prosecutor Alex Prentice, QC, asked Mr Cullen: ‘Did you understand what had been found?’ Mr Cullen replied: ‘My mum was dead.’
McGill is alleged to have assaulted Miss McLaughlin with intent to rape her and strangled her with a ligature at Crathie Court, Partick, on September 26, or 27, 1984. He is also accused of stealing keys.
In a joint minute of agreed facts, Mr Prentice said Miss McLaughlin was found lying on a bed on her back. He added: ‘The body was in a state of putrefaction, especially of the face. A ligature was tied tightly round her neck and knotted on the side and deeply indented into the flesh of her neck.’
Under cross-examination by defence counsel Sarah Livingstone, Mr Cullen agreed he had told police in 1984 that his mother was ‘scared’ about a month prior to her death.
Taxi driver David Seager, 63, told the court that he saw a man following Miss McLaughlin, who he knew by sight, hours before her death.
She walked in front of his taxi carrying her shoes in her hands. He said: ‘She seemed drunk.’
One of Miss McLaughlin’s daughters, Catherine Mullen, 73, said she last saw her happy and playing dominoes in the Hyndland Bar that night.
She agreed with Miss Livingstone that her mother would sometimes invite people back to her house after a drink.
McGill was charged with murder on December 4, 2019. He faces a further charge of threatening to murder Suzanne Russell and children in Motherwell, Lanarkshire, between January 1, 1985, and December 31, 1988. He denies all the charges against him.
The trial, before judge Lord Burns, continues.
‘Tied tightly round her neck’