I’ve hunted Alistair’s killer for 17 years... now I’m f inally on the brink of f inding him
TV detective’s breakthrough on Nairn banker’s shooting
IT was only two months ago that I spotted the headline which screamed, ‘Police have new man in sights over banker shooting’. This wasn’t news to me because months earlier, in the summer, a number of trusted sources had passed this man’s name to me, explaining how they’d been asked by detectives what they knew about him.
His identity was becoming the worst kept secret in Nairn.
I regard myself as a responsible investigator and writer, who always wants to see justice for victims and their loved ones who are left behind, and while the police do not always appreciate my interest in some of their greatest failings, I did what I thought was right. I contacted Police Scotland and asked them whether the man whose name had been given to me was of current interest to the team investigating Alistair Wilson’s murder. I waited, and I waited.
I followed up with them. They did not say ‘Yes’, they did not say ‘No’, I didn’t even get a ‘We cannot confirm or deny’; they simply refused to acknowledge the question, so I interpreted that as a ‘Yes’.
So far, I have discovered that this man was in his early 20s and was living in Nairn at the time of Alistair’s murder.
He has not lived in Nairn for some years but has a registered address elsewhere in Scotland.
I can today say that, this summer, he was convicted in a Scottish court of possessing a knife.
This offence dates back to 2019. He received a community punishment.
I have visited his registered address, where mail is still sent to him. I’ve spoken to neighbours, and a relative, who describes him as ‘difficult to get hold of’.
My research into this individual – and into the leads I have so far uncovered – is very much ongoing. But I know who police have in their sights. Solving this murder should not be far away.
Credit where it’s due, Police Scotland appear to have busied themselves around the case in recent months, and not before time. They have recently achieved a major cold-case success in convicting 80-year-old William MacDowell of the murders of Renee MacRae and her young son Andrew, who went missing in 1976.
If they can achieve that kind of success with a case well over 40 years old, then hope springs eternal that they can achieve some justice for Alistair’s widow Veronica, their two sons who are now young men and the wider family.
The police have released information to the media on at least five occasions this year, and this is to be welcomed.
First, they told us officers had gone to Canada to interview the man who used to be the licensee of the pub opposite Alistair’s home, The Havelock Hotel. I interviewed Andy Burnett on camera in The Havelock in 2009. The police stressed that he was a witness, and not a suspect.
Next the police told us that the age range of the gunman had been revised from the original 30 to 40 years old, and that now the age of the gunman at the time of the shooting could have been 20 to 40. Suddenly, a whole new demographic entered the frame.
The third announcement this year told us that two men had been seen on the beach in Nairn a month before the murder, and that one of these men had been in possession of a gun. In April, Detective Inspector Gary Winter told the assembled media that ‘the most likely’ motive for Alistair’s murder was a planning dispute around some decking that Mr Burnett had laid at The Havelock, which Alistair had strongly objected to.
I’d visited the planning department of Highland Council way back in 2009 and I’d retained all the paperwork around this retrospective planning application. A lot of people now wanted to see what I’d been sitting on for all those years.
It was once again emphasised that Mr Burnett was a ‘significant witness’, not a suspect.
Then on May 11 this year, Detective Superintendent Graeme Mackie was telling us that ‘pub talk’ in The Havelock over the planning application could be the key to unlocking the case.
Well, as you read this, I will be enjoying my fabulous cooked breakfast in The Havelock, because it is my favourite place to stay whenever I’m in Nairn. I can guarantee you this, I will be engaging in pub talk.
I’m an optimistic type of bloke and remain convinced that this case will, eventually, be solved. It most certainly should be.
If Police Scotland can convict MacDowell, then I firmly believe the killer of Alistair Wilson can be put before a court.
People in Nairn still feel the impact of this crime. It is still the subject of many discussions and people tell me their theories, their suspicions and their concerns. They are why I do what I do, and of course for Alistair, a young man in the prime of his life, with so much to look forward to, who did not deserve to die.
The truth is out there and I will not rest until this horrendous crime is solved.
It was on November 28, 2004, that Alistair, who was only 30, was gunned down and killed on his front doorstep in the quiet Highland town. Intrigued by the case, I travelled
‘Sources passed me this man’s name’ ‘I know who police have in their sights’
there. I hadn’t been there long before I formed the opinion, which I still hold strongly today, that Alistair’s murder was a case that could, and should, be solved.
Indeed, perhaps someone could have stood in the dock for this crime before now if the first officers to arrive at Alistair’s front door had possessed some semblance of experience in properly controlling and preserving such a crime scene. The gunman may now be languishing in prison if the thoroughness that I would expect from detectives had been applied.
By the time 2009 came around, I was determined to keep spreading the word about Alistair’s murder far and wide, in order to keep the case in the public consciousness, and to spread awareness way beyond Scotland.
The years came and went, and I kept travelling to Nairn using my years of experience working undercover in the Met.
It’s 18 years tomorrow since Alistair was murdered. Finally, it appears police are closing in, and an end to this case, after all these years, is at last on the horizon. lPeter Bleksley is an ex-Met officer and former chief investigator on Channel 4 reality show Hunted