Crown demands investigation into police handling of mystery death
Decision eight years after knife tragedy
PROSECUTORS have ordered an investigation into whether police officers were guilty of criminal conduct in attempting to cover up an inquiry into a young man’s death.
Colin Marr died eight years ago from a single stab wound to his heart that occurred after a row with his fiancée at his flat in Lochgelly, Fife.
His family believe he was murdered and have refused to allow the police and Crown to close the files on the case.
They kept a dossier of their treatment by officers at the heart of the investigation, and eventually won apologies from the Crown Office and Fife Police, which is now part of Police Scotland.
Now – more than four months after a deadline to take a view by ‘early May’ on possible criminality by the police – Crown Agent Catherine Dyer has written to Mr Marr’s mother and stepfather, Margaret and Stuart Graham, to confirm that a criminal investigation will be held.
The family has made a number of allegations of possible criminal conduct against a number of police officers, but two retired officers – former Detective Chief Inspector Graham Seath and former Deputy Chief Constable John Myles – have been the main focus of the complaints.
The family believes officers failed to carry out door-to-door inquiries and were selective about witness statements.
The Police Independent Review Commissioner (PIRC) has been asked to carry out the investigation – but the family has expressed its lack of confidence about the body’s independence and impartiality.
Mr Graham explained that the family had dealt with the PIRC previously, and claimed the investigating body had said it could not publish all its findings in case it hindered future criminal proceedings.
In a reply to the Crown Agent, the family said: ‘How can we be assured that a PIRC investigation will be both impartial and thorough? We have experience with PIRC on both of those issues and they give us no confidence.
‘ This is borne out with their failure to bottom out door-to-door inquiries with your organisation while happily accepting the position stated by police officers.
‘This is not the only issue but one that we know you are aware of.
‘This not only suggests lack of thoroughness, but also lack of impartiality.’
Mr Marr was killed on July 10, 2007, aged 23, by a single stab wound to the chest that went through his sternum and into his heart.
He had been rowing with his fiancée, Candice Bonar, now 31, who had accused him of infidelity.
Police officers arriving minutes later at the scene were met by a hysterical Miss Bonar claiming that he had stabbed himself.
As the Scottish Daily Mail revealed last month, the first officer to arrive, PC Michelle Murray, wrote in her notebook later that Miss Bonar had said: ‘ He’s been cheating on me and stuck a knife into him…’
At the fatal accident inquiry (FAI) held into Mr Marr’s death, the same officer told Sheriff Principal Alastair Dunlop, QC, that she recalled Miss Bonar had said ‘He stuck a knife in him’ – which was not what she wrote that evening and not the most common way to suggest he had stabbed himself.
Pathologist Professor Anthony Busuttil told the inquiry: ‘ This wound is much more likely to have been inflicted by another person.’
His colleague, Professor Michael Green, said: ‘The site of the wound and the fact it passed through bone means you cannot exclude homicide. I would not be happy to dismiss this as a self- inflicted wound. I lean towards homicide.’
The position of t he ‘ blood spatter’ from the wound is also said to raise questions.
Miss Bonar’s father James, a butcher, gave evidence at the FAI that he saw what appeared to be signs of blood having spurted onto the ceiling. He said he had cleaned this up and it was never subjected to forensic examination.
The Grahams have consulted forensic experts on the subject, who said that if there had been blood on the ceiling, it was ‘impossible to come from Colin doing it himself’ because of the direction in which the knife would have had to be removed.
But the FAI said that any finding based on this evidence would be entirely speculative and that it ‘casts no useful light on the central issue in the case’.
Months after the tragedy, Miss Bonar and her parents emigrated to Australia, where they still live. She has a young daughter with her fiancé, Bradley Humberdross, a man who bears a striking resemblance to Mr Marr.
Criticising the police, Mr Graham
‘We have been lied to and misled’
said: ‘ We have been lied to and misled by numerous s enior members of Fife Police in what seems an eternal drive to hide all failures and deny the truth.
‘Why would Police Scotland not want to take action against officers who have corrupted the name of the force? Is it because it goes far deeper?’
The family also remains unhappy that the latest development only occurred after the Scottish Daily Mail had contacted Police Scotland and the Crown Office about the delay in a decision that had been promised in May.
Chief Superintendent Eleanor Mitchell, Police Scotland’s Head of Professional Standards, said: ‘The delay was directly as a result of ongoing work to ensure the recommendations made by PIRC have been fully delivered by Police Scotland.’
A Crown Office spokesman said: ‘Investigations into allegations of criminal conduct by police officers which have been made by Mr and Mrs Graham are ongoing.’