2-11-2004 Scotland:
THE dismembered corpse of a pervert teacher was found in a shallow grave yesterday. Disgraced Alan Wilson's body was discovered in a garden in Edinburgh's posh Merchiston area.
It had been wrapped in a black plastic bag and dumped in a shallow grave in the undergrowth. His severed head, arms and legs were found tied up in separate bags and hidden beside it. Wilson, 52, was the former principal history teacher at James Gillespie's School in the city.
Hewas jailed for 18 months in May 2000 on eight counts of sex abuse against teenage pupils over a five-year period. He plied his victims with drink before abusing them.
The divorced father-of-two's torso was discovered by police early yesterday after they received a tip-off. A nearby house where it is believed the body was cut up was sealed as forensic teams moved in to gather evidence. Residents in the expensive suburb were shocked by the bloody killing.
One elderly woman who lives in flats overlooking the garden told how she heard digging in the garden nearly a week earlier. She said: 'I was up in the early hours and I heard what sounded like digging but when I looked out the window, I couldn't see anything.
'Now, the thought of what it could have been is simply horrifying.' Detectives found the torso had been partially buried but described it as a 'shallow and ineffective grave'. Last night, they were trying to piece together his movements in the days leading up to his brutal murder.
A friend who Wilson met in prison was helping police with their inquiries. And a post-mortem was being carried out to discover exactly how he died. A police spokesman said:'A body has been recovered in a rear garden at Merchiston Avenue. 'We are following a positive line of inquiry.'
On his release from jail, Wilson had returned to live in his flat in upmarket Royal Mile Mansions in the city. He went missing nearly two weeks ago and it is thought his dismembered body lay undiscovered for up to six days. Yesterday, his neighbours in the posh block refused to discuss Wilson, saying they had 'held a meeting' and decided not to comment.
Wilson had become awell-respected school figure in his 20-year career, even advising education authorities about teaching matters. But he was suspended in February 1999 after a mother complained he had plied her son with drink. An investigation revealed his sex attacks on the pupils who were supposed to be in his care.
Wilson was also a director of Mercat Tours, who provide guided historic walks through the capital. He had abused one boy after giving him a job distributing leaflets. Wilson had always been fascinated with death, gore and grisly murder.
Dressed in black, hooded cloaks, he would teach his tour guides to recount macabre tales of death and torture to tourists in candlelit underground vaults, including the once plague-ridden street of Mary King's Close.
Together with his then friend and colleague, Des Brogan, he co-wrote a book, Ghostly Tales and Sinister Stories of Old Edinburgh. It revels in the tales of dismembered bodies that the guides still tell nightly.
A former guide who worked for Wilson, who did not wish to be named, said: 'He loved all those gruesome tales of the grisly side to old Edinburgh and, in particular,stomach-churning murders. The book he wrote is dripping with guts and gore.
'He would make sure all the stories we told were full of all the grisly details too blood, pain and torture. 'There are all the famous tales like the one of the infamous bodysnatchers Burke and Hare.
'But after Wilson was sent to prison, he cut all ties with the company and I never knew what happened to him. 'So it seems incredible that he ended up as murdered like that, as though he were in one of his very own stories.
'It sounds horrible to say, but I suppose in years to come people will be telling tales of how he was killed.' ..more.. by Jack Mathieson
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