The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Mary killer could be extradited
THE CONVICTED killer of Dundee mum Mary Mclaren could be extradited to his native Ireland to stand trial for an earlier alleged sexual assault.
Gardai senior detectives want murderer Patrick Rae returned to the Republic to face a charge of the sexual assault of a 30-year-old woman at the Links Station, Portmarnock, near Dublin in April 2008.
Rae, who has 13 previous convictions including rape and serious assault, had been due to stand trial in May 2008 but he fled to Scotland where he would eventually rape and murder 34-year-old mother-of-three Mary at the Ladywell roundabout in February 2010.
Rae was on the run from the Gardai with a warrant issued for his arrest in November 2009 when he carried out the brutal attack.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment for a minimum of 20 years following the murder trial at the High Court in Edinburgh last June but it was revealed last night that senior officers in the Irish police force are now determined to get him back to Dublin to stand trial.
Sergeant Tony Connaughton from the Garda last night said: “We do not discuss named individuals” but one Gardai insider said the Irish police force are now intent on bringing him to justice.
He said: “He’s a nasty piece of work. The Irish cops reckon he’ll be banged up for 15 years if he’s found guilty.”
A spokesman for the Scottish Prison Service last night said he could not confirm if Rae was to be returned to his homeland. He said: “We do not comment on individual prisoners.”
The Crown Office failed to confirm last night whether or not it had received an official request for Rae to be sent home from
“He’s a nasty piece of work”
Gardai insider
the Irish authorities but indicated that the details of such cases were highly sensitive due to the nature of the charges.
Throughout the murder trial jurors heard how despite the warrants Rae had been able to flee Ireland simply by changing the spelling of his surname from the Rea that appears on his birth certificate to Rae.
The rapist was able to settle in Scotland undetected, firstly on the Clintertey cara- van site near Aberdeen and then in a flat in Arbroath with his Scottish girlfriend.
From there he went on to travel to Dundee for a night out at Fat Sams nightclub where he was caught on CCTV dancing with Mary. He then lured her to her death, strangling her and concealing her body.
The Mclaren family declined to comment on the development when approached last night. Irishman Patrick Rae was no stranger to the court services by the time he was put on trial for the murder of Mary Mclaren.
The labourer’s convictions had already left him cut him off from his extended family and disowned by his brother.
His murky past included theft, trespass and drink driving.
By 1997 when he was convicted for raping a middle-aged woman in Longford Town, he was reviled as a local villain.
Speaking following the Mclaren trial the rapist’s uncle Brendan said all family bonds had been severed long ago.
He said: “We haven’t had anything to do with that side of the family for years and we don’t want to be associated with them.”
Mr Rae’s wife Ann added they had suffered for their nephew’s brutal acts.
“The whole family is devastated and I’m just so sorry for it,” she said.
“There hasn’t been any contact with him in years, maybe even a bit before the 1997 rape.”
It was the 1997 rape that would ultimately cut him off from the family.
Sergeant Derek Dougan of the Longford Garda recalled the episode.
“It was a near-death experience and it’s only because she was a strong woman that she survived,” he said.
Rae got seven years.