The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Police searching flat ‘missed body in bath’
Chainsaw and heavy-duty black bags were found but officers didn’t look inside
Police officers searching for a missing woman in a single-bedroom flat failed to find her butchered body lying in the bath, the High Court in Glasgow has been told.
A search of murder accused Steven Jackson’s home was conducted without a single officer opening the door of his bathroom to look inside.
The body of Kimberley MacKenzie was within, according to witnesses.
It has emerged that four police officers carried out searches at Jackson’s home on Market Street, Montrose.
Each admitted they had failed to open the bathroom door, with the officers blaming “miscommunication” and “distraction”.
During two visits on the same day, they looked under a bed, opened cupboards, searched behind curtains in the living-room and poked around the kitchen.
The failure to enter the bathroom left presiding judge Lady Rae bemused and she questioned the methods used by Police Scotland.
Having heard evidence from three officers it fell to Montrose PC Debbie Ironside to answer for the failings.
Lady Rae asked the officer what it meant to search a house, adding: “Do you mean just part of the house?”.
The officer replied: “It means all of the house.
“I will search half of a property and a colleague will search the other half.”
Lady Rae replied: “Is there some special system because you are the fourth officer that did not search the bathroom?”.
The witness said colleagues “did usually communicate” but admitted that had not taken place on that occasion.
PC Ironside admitted her attention had been drawn, midway through her search by a number of heavy-duty black bags, half-filled with unknown but bulky contents and a chainsaw.
The jury heard she and a colleague had accepted the explanation offered by Jackson, who told them: “There’s nothing to worry about. “It belongs to a friend. “There’s not even a motor in it.” The officers did not search the bags and did not complete their search of the flat.
The court heard how during the multiple visits by Police Scotland Jackson had been calm and unflappable and officers undertaking what was, at that time, a missing person inquiry had found nothing untoward.
But during a return visit on November 4, as the search for missing Ms MacKenzie continued, officers noticed a strong smell as they knocked on the door.
PC Garry Smith said when he arrived with his colleague PC Michael Woodburn, they were aware of “a smell you would associate with a dead body” from the communal stairwell.
Incense was being used to mask the smell.
Jackson, 40, and co-accused Michelle Higgins, 29, are on trial at the High Court in Glasgow.
They deny murdering and dismembering 37-year-old Kimberley MacKenzie at Jackson’s flat in October last year.
It is alleged they cut up Miss MacKenzie’s body and put her parts into bins at Market Street, Paton’s Lane, Chapel Street and William Phillips Drive.
Jackson and Higgins are also alleged to have cleaned and bleached the walls of the flat and disposed of a bloodstained rug. Both deny murder. The trial continues.