In Scotland there’s been a murder …or has there?

Since about 2015 it’s been legal to film in Scottish Courts under the pretext that the production team are “Making a Documentary” and so hidden away in the Documentaries tab of BBC Iplayer is a two part film of the trial of Edward Cairney, 77, and Avril Jones, 59, for the murder of Margaret Fleming.

Cairney and Jones called the plod to a house by a lake outside Glasgow ...to spin them a yarn that its owner Margaret Fleming had run away.  They were her “carers”.  But this story didn’t seem to make sense to the police as – for a start – there was a large bay window missing from her house and she hadn’t been seen for several years and her bed didn’t seem to have been slept in.  Indeed, it turned out she hadn’t been seen for over a decade and a half.  

She disappeared around 2000 and her carers claimed she’d run off to see the millennium dome – Well, I’m glad someone was keen to see it.   In the house police found letters purportedly from Margaret in London.  Oddly they had the name of the hotel on the letterhead and even more oddly it turned out Edward and Avril had been staying in the hotel at exactly the time they had been posted a decade and a half earlier.  This didn’t really tie into the stories they told police or a local journalist.  One wondered if this was a false alibi they had set up if they’d done it a decade and a half ago and then forgotten about it.

For “carers” Edward and Avril didn’t seem to care much about the fate of Margaret either.  Although Avril had continued cashing Margaret’s benefits cheques for nearly a decade so a reasonably sized fraud had been undertaken.  Still not much money to kill someone over …but maybe it doesn’t need to be much…

The dramatic tension in the documentary really comes from the fact that there is no body … digging up the garden revealed nothing but animal bones and while the cadaver dogs barked it was about as conclusive as their barking in the McCann case.  Therefore Edward and Avril were convicted solely – it’s not a spoiler if it’s a real life event, sorry – by circumstantial evidence.  A lot of it.  In the words of Judge Matthews “You were convicted after trial of the murder of Margaret Fleming. Precisely how that was accomplished and any other circumstances was not disclosed in evidence and only you two know the truth. Only you two know where her remains are.”

The real fascination of the two part documentary however is watching the body language of Edward and Avril.  Avril avoids everyone’s gaze while Edward yawns and checks his watch regularly.  A highlight comes when the defence put their case which seems to consist entirely of Edward being mildly rude to the Judge and the prosecuting counsel and coming over so badly you have to wonder if his defence barrister didn’t encourage him to hang himself with his own words out of revulsion.  Both Edward and Avril are ugly people inside and out.  Not that watching the documentary has made me at all prejudicial …

It’s worth a look if only to wonder how Margaret had disappeared for over a decade and a half without anyone noticing.  Researches of available public data like GP’s and dentist’s records showed nothing… A few old photos found in the house from over a decade and a half ago were all that remained of her.  A passing fireman claimed he might have smelled burning flesh a decade or so ago from a bonfire.  Possibly the giant lake at the bottom of the garden might hold an answer?  Maybe it wasn’t murder.  Maybe it was an accident and they covered it up.  However, the chances of that seem … slim?  The interesting thing about the case is there isn’t one conclusive piece of evidence but lots of small pieces.  And, as Sam Spade once said, maybe some of them are unimportant - I won't argue about that - but look at the number of them…