‘Sex texts’ of police chief accused of killing wife
He had ‘explicit messages from another woman’ on his iPhone
A RETIRED police officer accused of killing his wife had ‘sexually explicit’ messages from another woman on his phone, a court heard yesterday.
An Apple iPhone was seized from Keith Farquharson during the inquiry into the death of 56-year-old Alice Farquharson.
A cybercrime analyst who examined the device said texts were found that were ‘suggestive’ in tone.
Jurors heard a phone belonging to Mrs Farquharson was also checked, with searches about buying homes in Shetland made the night before she died.
Farquharson, 60, is on trial at the High Court in Glasgow. He denies murdering his 56-year-old wife at their home in Aberdeen last August.
Ewan Stewart, a cybercrime analyst for Police Scotland, helped to examine the phones taken from the couple.
The court heard there appeared to be contact between Farquharson and an unnamed female in 2018. No details of what the messages contained were read out in court.
Prosecutor Alex Prentice, QC, asked Mr Stewart: ‘Would it be right to say there followed a number of texts to and from the device used by the woman?
‘These are extremely sexually explicit messages?’
Mr Stewart said: ‘Yes, that would be my interpretation.’
Mr Prentice then asked: ‘They are quite specific about sexual activity?’
The witness agreed. The advocate then went on: ‘Did the ‘exchanges continue in a similar fashion... lewd messages?’.
Mr Stewart replied: ‘They are suggestive.’
The trial heard that Mrs Farquharson’s phone was also examined. Internet searches made using the device on the night before she died included ‘bidding for a house in Shetland’ and ‘houses to bid for Shetland’.
Farquharson is accused of murdering his wife by seizing hold of her and struggling with her before compressing her neck and face. It is also alleged that he left her unconscious after ‘restricting her breathing’ by covering her nose and mouth.
He is then said to have caused blunt force injury ‘by means unknown’. The court later heard from pathologist Dr Leighanne Deboys, who helped to carry out the postmortem examination on Mrs Farquharson’s body.
The mother was found to have suffered ‘mechanical asphyxia’. Dr Deboys said: ‘For some reason she has been prevented from breathing oxygen as usual. Something from the outside has been pressing her neck.’
The pathologist’s report also found there were bruises on Mrs Farquharson’s cheek.
Dr Deboys said this suggested ‘blunt force trauma’ and could be explained ‘by compression or gripping’.
Mrs Farquharson’s sister, Hilary Montgomery, 62, had earlier told the trial that she had gone to the Farquharsons’ home after the death of her sibling.
She recalled her brother-inlaw still being in the house.
She said: ‘He looked very shocked. He had tears in his eyes. But every time there has been something major in Keith’s life and I have seen him, he always has tears in his eyes.’
The trial continues.
‘Quite specific about sexual activity’