We just can’t
Dismay of tragic student’s family after police change their account of where he was last seen
family of tragic student Scott Calder voiced disbelief yesterday after the police changed their account of the hours before his death.
Scott, 23, died two months ago despite being picked up by police after witnesses raised the alarm over his safety.
His parents Brian and Karen Calder were initially told officers had dropped him at a bus stop in Port Seton, East Lothian, close to a chip shop, a garage, houses and a Co-op.
An officer even took Mr Calder to the location to show him exactly where his son was last seen alive.
But, after accusing the police of failing to give them a proper explanation of how their son died, the family asked East Lothian Council for CCTV footage from a security camera covering the bus stop on the night Scott died.
The film showed no police cars stopping there and on Friday, after The Sunday Post asked for an explanation, the force changed their account to say the student had been dropped at another bus stop on the outskirts of town.
His father, Brian, yesterday spoke of his family’s shock and mounting anger. He said: “We are absolutely dumbfounded by this. It is hard to believe that we are finding out this kind of information in this kind of way.
“If the police knew they had given us the wrong information, why have they made no attempt to correct it?
11PM, OCTOBER 13, 2018: STUDENT’S FINAL HOURS “Why does it take a phone call from The Sunday Post to drag this out of them?” Five weeks ago, The Post interviewed Scott’s parents at the beach at Longniddry Bents where his body was found on the morning of Sunday, October 14. We also reported how they visited the bus stop where, at the time, they believed Scott had been dropped. We described how they had spent time speaking to people living and working nearby in the hope of gaining new information about their son’s final movements.
Despite that and despite, apparently, knowing Scott had been dropped elsewhere, no one from Police Scotland approached the family to inform them. Mr Calder said: “We had been doing our own investigations, we had been up and down the road in Port Seton talking to people, asking for CCTV and knocking on doors trying to find out what happened to our son. The whole time it has been for nothing. He wasn’t even there.
“The police chose not to tell us until it was forced out of them. We asked for CCTV and they refused our request. We had to get it for ourselves and only then do they decide to tell us?
“It is abysmal. They have told us
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If we had not obtained this footage, would they ever have told us this? Who knows?