Journalist urges police to reopen case into Dundee man’s death

Police must reopen inquiries into the death of a Dundee tycoon with links to Russia who died in a fall after claiming he would be murdered, according to a fresh investigation into a series of suspicious fatalities.

Investigative journalist Heidi Blake spent years probing the life and death of Scot Young, one of 14 people whose deaths in the UK have been linked to Russia.

Mr Young, who grew up in a tenement in Dundee, dealt in property and became an aide to a Russian oligarch who opposed President Vladimir Putin and who was found dead in his home in Berkshire in 2013.

Despite police deciding he had killed himself, Mr Young’s death in London the following year sparked theories he had been assassinated.

Ms Blake, in her new book From Russia With Blood, examines his death and 13 others.

She told The Sunday Post: “Scot Young is a pretty fascinating character.

“We became aware over the course of our many years investigating him that he operated as a fixer for superrich and powerful figures, most notably Boris Berezovsky, the Russian oligarch who fled to the UK after angering the Kremlin.”

She says the official account of his suicide came after a cursory investigation.

She added: “We know he was living in fear of his life.

“We had copies of police records in which he said he believed he was going to be murdered and asked for police protection.

“Yet when he eventually was found dead, police didn’t even stop to dust for fingerprints and didn’t grab CCTV.

“Given who Scot was, who he’d been associating with and how many times he’d warned he believed he was going to be murdered, it was pretty extraordinary.”

Mr Young’s ex-wife Michelle, mum to the couple’s two daughters, believes his death is suspicious and is trying to trace what she believes is hundreds of millions of pounds of missing assets.

Ms Blake said: “There’s all sorts of evidence which suggest it may not have been suicide.

“We are saying it’s one of 14 deaths which ought to be fully investigated and until that happens the suspicions are going to linger.”

The Met said reviews had been carried out into the deaths and there was “no basis on which to reopen any of the investigations”.

Picture: PA.