Is this proof he DID murder his mother?
Due to stand trial, fugitive Sean Flynn took his own life last week in Spain. Now the MoS can reveal soil in his car matched EXACTLY that from his mum’s shallow grave
COMPELLING new evidence suggests that a man who took his own life while awaiting trial was guilty of murdering his mother.
Sean Flynn was due in court last week to face a charge of killing his mother, Louise Tiffney, but plunged from a tower block while on the run in Spain.
Although prosecutors will no longer have an opportunity to present a case, The Scottish Mail on Sunday can reveal that they were confident they had a rock-solid case to prove his guilt.
When Ms Tiffney, 43, went missing from her Edinburgh home in 2002, soil samples were collected from her son’s clothes and shoes and from the boot of his car.
However, it was only 15 years later when her body was discovered in a shallow grave that police were able to compare the samples they had previously found to samples of the soil in
‘The most crucial development was finding the burial site’
which her remains were buried. When an exact chemical match was established, officers were sure they had the proof they needed to solve the long-standing mystery.
Last night, a source with detailed knowledge of the case said: ‘The most crucial development was finding the deposition [burial] site. As well as giving Louise Tiffney’s loved ones a greater sense of closure with the recovery and proper disposal of her body, it gave forensic experts the chance to match soil from the site at East Lothian with samples of soil recovered from the boot of Sean Flynn’s car, his footwear and clothing.’
The source added: ‘The fresh evidence was very compelling.
‘Soil found in the vehicle and on Sean Flynn’s belongings matched exactly the soil from the temporary grave where he had left his mother.
‘Everyone involved was confident of securing a guilty verdict.’
Ms Tiffney, a single mother, disappeared in 2002 from her flat in Edinburgh’s Dean Village that she shared with Flynn and her six yearold daughter Hannah.
Suspicion fell on Flynn who admitted he was the last person to see her alive.
He claimed that, after a blazing row, his mother stormed out of the flat in an ‘agitated state’ and never came back.
Her family were adamant that despite the arguments at home, she would never have walked out on her daughter.
The police soon agreed and extensive searches at home and abroad threw up no trace of the missing woman.
Their investigation led to Flynn when his mother’s DNA profile matched blood which was found in the boot of his car along with mud and vegetation.
The car was also captured on CCTV heading out of Edinburgh on the night Ms Tiffney disappeared, and officers ruled out all cars of the same make and model, except Flynn’s.
Although at that stage there had been no body discovered, there was an abundance of circumstantial evidence stacked against Flynn.
Despite this, he was cleared on a majority not proven verdict after a murder trial in 2005, and walked free from court.
However, more than a decade later, in 2017, Ms Tiffney’s remains were found in a shallow grave by the entrance lodge to Gosford House in Longniddry, East Lothian, by a passing cyclist.
The discovery threw the case back open, and led police back to their original suspect – Flynn.
The new evidence – the dirt from the ground where his mother’s body lay for years matching the soil samples taken from Flynn’s clothes, shoes and car – was the decisive factor.
By the time of the discovery, the law of double jeopardy in Scotland had changed.
This meant that a person could be tried twice for the same crime, and Flynn was charged with the murder for the second time.
He was expected to go on trial at the High Court in Livingston last week accused of killing his mother, but he failed to show up.
A warrant for Flynn’s arrest was issued on Tuesday before his body was discovered two days later in the Alicante region of Spain.
In a statement, Flynn’s solicitor, Aamer Anwar, said that he was advised yesterday morning that Flynn, 37, ‘was according to the police, found dead in Spain, after taking his own life’.
‘Everyone was confident of a guilty verdict’