Inverkip carers jailed for Margaret Fleming murder

The carers of a woman not seen for 20 years have been convicted of her murder.

77 year-old Edward Cairney and 59 year-old Avril Jones killed Margaret Fleming having been asked to look after her by her lawyer dad before he died.

Prosecutors believe vulnerable Margaret – who would have been 19 at the time - suffered a cruel death between December 1999 and January 2000 at their home in Inverkip, Inverclyde.

The pair maintained the young woman was still alive.

Ex-marine engineer Cairney made a series of bizarre claims including Margaret had become a gangmaster and was a drug dealer.

This was despite jurors being told she had learning difficulties and could not live on her own.

Jones meantime continued to rake in £182,000 of benefits for her.

A missing person's inquiry in 2016 later turned into a huge murder probe leading to the couple being held for killing Margaret.

Despite an extensive search, no body has ever been found. It is not even known how poor Margaret met her death.

Cairney and Jones continued to protest their innocence during a six week trial at the High Court in Glasgow.

But, prosecutors told jurors the pair had been motivated by “greed, arrogance and lies”.

The sick pair showed no emotion today/yesterday after being convicted of murder and attempting to defeat the ends of justice.

Jones was also guilty of benefit fraud.

Cairney – who had been on bail – was taken to the cells in his wheelchair.

Jones – who got herself deliberately remanded before the trial – needed her crutches as she lead away by guards.

Both face a life sentence when they return to the dock next month.

The trial heard how Margaret was a teenager when she moved in with the couple who eventually preyed on her.

Her father Derek Fleming was so concerned about her future that he stipulated in his will she should be cared for by Cairney and Jones.

He thought she would be safe living with his friends.

Sadly the pair motivated by greed murdered Margaret and then covered up their hideous crime for almost 20 years.

It emerged when Margaret came to live with them in 1997 the mortgage at Seacroft was thousands of pounds in arrears.

Prosecutors believe that £4,000 left to Margaret by her father and grandparents was used to pay off part of the arrears.

Over the years Margaret's benefits money, which was claimed by Jones, was used to pay household bills.

Prosecutor Iain McSporran QC said: “Their motive for inviting Margaret Fleming into their home is likely to be financial rather than altruistic.”

After killing Margaret, the pair set about preparing an elaborate cover story in case anyone began snooping and wondered what had happened to Margaret.

Jones told her mother that Margaret had left on January 5, 2000, with travellers.

They travelled down to London by car in January 2000 to concoct a cover story in case anyone began questioning what had really happened to Margaret.

During the trip they wrote and posted three letters supposedly written by Margaret and posted one in Carlisle and the other two in London.

They thought they were being clever, but the letters contributed to them being unmasked as killers.

A former teacher said that Margaret struggled to write 100 words and could not have written the letters.

Two of them were penned from the same hotel in London where Cairney and Jones stayed.

Once back home Cairney and Jones stripped their cluttered house of any of Margaret's possessions, but kept the three letters.

They must have thought the had got away with killing Margaret as the years passed.

Mr McSporran said: “The reason for the trip to London was to create a false trial of evidence to explain Margaret's disappearance and to conceal her death for which they were responsible.”

Margaret's murder might never have been uncovered if it had not been for a change in benefits from disability living allowance to PIP and the need to fill in new claim forms.

It was only when Jones made an outrageous benefits claim on behalf of Margaret that the spotlight was turned on them.

Jones claimed that Margaret ate out of a dog bowl and picked holes in her head, but had not seen a doctor for 17 years.

Benefits staff were so concerned that they contacted Inverclyde Social Work department.

Social worker Veronica Bennett phoned the police and a missing person's investigation was set up in October 2016.

Miss Bennett, who spoke to Jones on the phone and then visited Seacroft, before calling in the police said: "She told me she didn't want any help. Avril also said Margaret had picked a hole in her head and she hadn't taken her to a doctor."

Police found the behaviour of Cairney and Jones bizarre. The pair seemed totally unconcerned about Margaret's welfare.

Officers did not believe a word of Cairney and Jones' claim that Margaret had been living in Seacroft and fled when they arrived.

When police asked why there were no birthday cards at Seacroft on October 28, 2016 , just days before Margaret's birthday, they said nothing.

But by November 1, 2016 there was a birthday card in an envelope on the mantlepiece in the living room.

When police opened the envelope on November 3, 2016 they found a birthday card inside inscribed to Margaret All our love as always Eddie and Avril.

A murder investigation was launched and the back garden in Seacroft was searched without success for signs of Margaret's body.

All police found were 298 fragments of burned bone, too small to identify as human, or obtain DNA from.

Bizarrely, Cairney and Jones spoke to journalists and told them among other things that Margaret was a gangmaster and travelled abroad frequently although she did not have a passport.

During a BBC Reporting Scotland interview Jones is asked what she would say to Margaret if she walked though the door.

She said nothing and just stares blankly.

Cairney gave evidence during the trial and said he had last seen Margaret in London in 2017.

She was apparently there with a known housebreaker. He had supposedly urged her to return to Scotland.

Asked during the trial if he had harmed Margaret, he replied: ““No, I certainly have not. I am incapable of harming a lady...just cannot do that.”

Jones did not give evidence.

Lord Matthews deferred sentencing for reports.