Letters 'too sophisticated' for murder victim to have written
Margaret Fleming was allegedly killed in a home she shared with her carers between 1999 and 2000
Last updated 9th Oct 2018
Alleged murder victim Margaret Fleming was highly unlikely to have written three letters attributed to her, a former teacher told a court today.
The letters were typewritten and dated shortly after Margaret is alleged to have been killed in the house she shared with carers Edward Cairney and Avril Jones.
Jacqueline Cahill, 55, who taught Margaret at Port Glasgow High School for two years told the High Court in Glasgow that they were 'too sophisticated."
The English teacher said of Margaret: “She was of low ability.”
Cairney, 77, and Jones, 58, deny murdering Margaret by means unknown at the home they shared at Seacroft, Main road, Inverkip, Renfrewshire, between December 18, 1999 and January 5, 2000, when she was aged 19.
They also deny claiming £182,000 in benefits fraud by pretending for 17 years from December 1999 to October 2016 she was alive.
The court has heard that Jones claims that Margaret left with a traveller, but returned from time to time over the years to collect her benefits money.
Yesterday, Mrs Cahill said that police showed her three letters addressed to Cairney and Jones, signed by Margaret and dated between January 9 and 13, 2000. The first from Carlisle and the other two from Regent Palace Hotel in London.
Prosecutor Iain McSporran QC asked Mrs Cahill: “What was Margaret's level of writing,” and she replied: “She could write unaided or with support around about 100 words. There would be a number of errors in it, but you could get from it what she meant.”
Mrs Cahill said that in her opinion her letters were 'too sophisticated” and had a number of words spelt correctly which she would have expected to be wrongly spelt by someone of Margaret's ability. These words included probably, really and museum.
Mr McSporran asked: “Could Margaret have produced these letters," and she replied: “I think it is highly unlikely. She would have needed a lot of support to put pen to paper.”
Defence QC Thomas Ross, representing Cairney, said to Mrs Cahill: “You don't have any of Margaret's school work to compare with these letters,” and she replied: "That's correct."
He then said: “Did you ever suggest that Margaret should have been taken out of mainstream school,” and Mrs Cahill replied: “No, but she did require support with her literacy.”
Iain Duguid QC, representing Jones, asked Mrs Cahill if the letters could have been written for Margaret and she just signed them.
She replied: “My personal feeling is that the Margaret I knew would not have produced these letters.
“There is no punctuation. Margaret knew how to punctuate .
“ The letters have quite a sophisticated stream of consciousness and use of imagery like the reference to 'to make up my mind if I am a traveller or a mouse.”
The jury was shown the letters which were in the main rambling and confusing and with no punctuation.
In one letter sent from the London hotel the author speaks of 'going to Scotland to the mountains and hills to make up my mind if I am a traveller or a mouse.'
In her evidence Mrs Cahill described Margaret as “very quiet, very shy and very compliant.”
Mr Duguid asked: “Did you know social workers assessed Margaret as aggressive towards her mother and attention seeking,” and Mrs Cahill replied: “At school she was quiet and compliant.”
The trial later heard that Margaret had been someone who "wanted to be invisible".
The claim was made by Elizabeth Brown - another ex- teacher who had dealings with Margaret at Port Glasgow High School.
The now retired 78 year-old had previously taught her for three years.
Miss Brown at the time was principal teacher for learning support.
Asked about Margaret at school, the witness said: "She portrayed as actually wanting to be invisible.
"She did anything she could not to draw attention to herself.
"Margaret never went outside voluntarily. She hung around in the corridors.
"If she felt ill at ease, she came looking for us."
The former teacher added Margaret had "such low esteem" and "lacking in confidence"
The trial before judge Lord Matthews continues