Teenager admits killing her 69-year-old ‘best pal’

10-11-2010 Scotland:

Harry Smith suffered a haemorrhage after being repeatedly hit by Elaine Fleming.

A teenage girl who killed a pensioner in an attack at his home was heard saying: "I didn't want him to die, he was my best pal", a court has heard.

But underage drinker Elaine Fleming had earlier called her victim "a paedophile and a pervert" and shouted she was "going to kill the bastard".

Fleming, then aged 17, repeatedly punched Harry Smith in a fatal attack at his home in Mainsford Avenue, Drongan, in Ayrshire, on October 13 last year. The 69-year-old victim suffered a massive haemorrhage in his head and died later at hospital in Ayr.

Fleming, now 18, of Hannahston Avenue, Drongan, admitted the culpable homicide of Mr Smith, when she appeared at the High Court in Edinburgh.

Defence counsel Mark Stewart QC said Fleming was "extremely upset" over being charged with causing the death of her friend. He said it was "an odd friendship" given their ages.

A judge agreed to continue the teenager's bail for a background report to be prepared on her before sentencing.

But Lord Kinclaven told Fleming: "You should be under no illusion a custodial sentence will be uppermost in the court's mind."

The court heard Mr Smith, a father-of-two, had lived alone since the death of his wife some years previously.

Advocate depute David Young QC said that following his wife's death Mr Smith had taken to drinking and allowed others into his house to drink, among them youngsters including Fleming.

Fleming had turned up at his house on the day of the fatal attack and began drinking. Two schoolgirls later arrived and found her lying in "a drunken stupor" on the sofa next to Mr Smith. They tried to wake her but failed.

Mr Young told the court the girls said Mr Smith put a hand inside Fleming's trousers and up her top. One girl said he had remarked "Do you want her awake?" but the other said he said he was looking for money and checked her pockets.

After Fleming woke she left the house with one of the girls who told her what had occurred.

Commotion

Mr Young said: "This was the first that she was aware of anything happening. On hearing about the incident the accused said that she was going to go to his house to 'go off her head at him'."

The prosecutor said she later went back to Mr Smith's home and confronted him shouting and swearing, calling him a paedophile and a pervert and saying he had touched her when she was asleep.

He said Fleming went in and out of the house several times, including occasions when she was put out by others, but kept returning.

Mr Young said: "The commotion was overheard by several people who began to gather at the front driveway of the house.

"The accused was seen to be very irate and at one point she was heard to shout 'I'm going to kill the bastard', although this was said to be the sort of thing that she would say when in a temper. Witnesses described her as being very drunk," he said.

Fleming was seen punching the pensioner to the head. During the attack he sat on a couch and did not retaliate. Eventually his head slumped to the side but Fleming accused him of pretending to sleep. But others became concerned and an ambulance was called.

Mr Young said: "After the incident the accused remained at the scene and was described as being hysterical, at times rolling on the ground crying and screaming. She is reported as saying 'I didn't want him to die, he was my best pal' and 'I knew I hit him, but I didn't mean to do that'."

The assault victim was taken to Ayr Hospital where he was found to be unconscious and unresponsive and was placed on life support. A decision was later taken to switch off the ventilator.

Fleming was later interviewed by police and admitted hitting the deceased a couple of times, after being told he had been touching her, but said she thought it was to his shoulder and chest. ..Source.. by S-TV.com

PERV CHOPPED UP: Body parts of abuse teacher found in garden grave

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