£200,000 found in biscuit tins at home of murder victim
DETECTIVES thought a bloody murder scene was the result of a pensioner bumping his head while on blood thinners, a court heard yesterday.
It took police just under a week to change their minds and more than a month before they found nearly £200,000 in cash squirrelled away in biscuit and sweet tins.
The blunders emerged yesterday during the third day of the trial of Steven Sidebottom, who is accused of murdering and robbing pensioner Brian McKandie.
Mr McKandie, 67, was found dead on March 12, 2016, at his remote cottage near Rothienorman, Aberdeenshire.
Prosecutors claim Sidebottom, who denies the single charge against him, assaulted Mr McKandie the day before by repeatedly striking him on the head and body with an ‘unidentified implement or implements’.
The High Court in Aberdeen heard his body was only found after a customer glimpsed blood through a window and called the police.
Officers then took several days to realise he had been murdered. The court heard they initially thought he had fallen in his garden, with a prescription for anticoagulant warfarin explaining the blood all over the hallway, on a bed and up the walls both inside and outside the house.
PC Alisdair McHardy, first on the scene, kicked down the door then found Mr McKandie propped up against the living room door.
The court heard precautions taken in the event of a suspected murder had not been followed, such as wearing protective clothing and limiting the number of people allowed into the crime scene.
Giving evidence, PC McHardy, 53, said: ‘The theory was that he had fallen outside then came in.’
Advocate depute Iain McSporran asked him: ‘Did you have any impression this was a murder scene?’ The constable replied: ‘It’s difficult to tell. You have to keep an open mind.’
PC Ross McDonald, who was next at the cottage, said: ‘At the time we did not believe it was suspicious. Prescriptions belonging to the deceased were checked and it was found he was on the warfarin. That would have thinned the blood.’
The court heard it was one of Mr McKandie’s customers – for a repair shop he ran from his garage – who raised the alarm.
Kelly Dunbar, 42, turned up at Mr McKandie’s house hoping to get him to prepare her car for an MOT. She found keys in the garage door and the radio playing but no sign of Mr McKandie, who regularly took cash payments for repairs.
Miss Dunbar told the court the living room curtains were drawn shut despite it being mid-afternoon. After peering through a window she found a horrifying scene, the court heard.
Advocate depute Iain McSporran, QC, asked her: ‘What did you see?’ She replied: ‘Blood. It was on an inside door, the floor and the walls.
‘I asked my partner to look and he told me to call the police.’
The court heard previously that 47 days after Mr McKandie was found dead, bundles of cash were discovered in biscuit and sweetie tins hidden in a back bedroom.
The jury was shown pictures of Toblerone and Quality Street tins full of £20 notes bundled together by elastic bands – thought to be the cash payments made by customers.
Defence counsel Ian Duguid, QC, said to Miss Dunbar’s partner Mark Coutts, 50, a customer: ‘There was nearly £200,000 cash in his house. Did you have any inkling he had that amount of money hidden in tubs and tins?’ Mr Coutts replied: ‘No.’ Sidebottom has lodged a special defence of incrimination, accusing another man of the crime instead.
He claims he was in various other locations including Aberdeen during the time of Mr McKandie’s death.
The trial before Lord Uist continues.
‘Did not believe it was suspicious’