Mother lef t £300,000 to ‘beloved’ son ...who went on to kill her
A WOMAN who was murdered by her son said she wanted to leave the bulk of her £500,000 estate to him – as thanks for supporting her through illness.
Carol Anne Taggart, 54, was strangled to death by Ross Taggart, who then buried her body under a caravan.
Taggart, 33, had attacked his mother at the home they shared in Dunfermline, Fife, then sparked a missing person probe by telling police she had stormed out of the house following a row.
He was jailed for at least 18 years at the High Court in Edinburgh after being found guilty of the December 2014 murder.
Miss Taggart’s newly published will reveals that she showered praise on her son for caring for her when she was ill, and wanted him to have the majority of her fortune – although he is banned from receiving any money.
She gave him her £300,000 home in Dunfermline, its furniture and her childminding business.
In the will she wrote she was leaving him the assets ‘in consideration of the fact that during my illness Ross has stayed with me and supported me and in so doing given up a large part of his freedom and activities’.
Miss Taggart’s daughter, Lorraine Bristow, who was cut out of the will, is campaigning along with other family members to have a legal loophole closed which allowed the killer to be appointed as executor of her estate.
He cannot receive any money under Scots law but has control over decisions relating to the estate and has refused the family access to the house.
Mrs Bristow, 29, said: ‘I am certain that Ross forced my mum into writing this will.
‘She had a number of wills throughout her life but it was changed so he got most of the money. My mum was a vulnerable woman and Ross played on that to try and get to her money.
‘He has control over her estate and is stalling on selling the house. It’s awful to have to live with. This is not about money for me, I just want into the house to collect some belongings and get it sold.’
The value of Miss Taggart’s estate was £486,396. Her other wealth included a £160,000 life insurance policy and cash held in several bank accounts, which she left to her other son Daniel, who lives in Manchester.
The documents reveal Miss Taggart wrote the will in March, 2013, just under two years before she was killed, and signed it in the presence of a solicitor.
To be appointed executor, Taggart had to sign a declaration confirming the date and location of his mother’s death. He gave his address as HMP Edinburgh, where he is serving his sentence.
Within hours of killing his mother, he went to the home of a woman in Dunfermline seeking sex after connecting on a dating website. He then had a night out in Edinburgh using his mother’s credit card and pawned her jewellery, claiming it had been left to him.
Police found Mrs Taggart’s body, wrapped in bedding and trussed in twine, under a caravan at Pettycur Bay, Fife, in January, 2015.
In March, Mrs Bristow’s husband Stephen launched a petition asking for a change in the law to prevent convicted murderers from acting as an executor for their victim.
It is understood the estate will be split between Mrs Bristow and her brother Daniel when the killer agrees to distribute it.
‘Forced mum into writing this will’