Anger over Fraser bid to overturn conviction

Published on Friday 31 October 2008 20:35

A NEW attempt by Nat Fraser to overturn his conviction for arranging the murder of his estranged wife was condemned by her family yesterday.

Fraser is serving a minimum of 25 years for hiring a killer to strangle Arlene Fraser at their home in New Elgin, Moray.

He has already lost an appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh, and is trying to take the case to the Privy Council in London. He needs leave from the Edinburgh court, and after hearing submissions yesterday, judges there reserved their decision on his request.

After the hearing, Mrs Fraser's father, Hector McInnes, 67, said: "I do not think he has much of a chance. I think he will be pleading insanity next to get off with it."

Mrs Fraser, 33, disappeared in 1998, after waving off her two children to school. She and her husband had separated a few weeks earlier, after he assaulted her on her return from a night out. It was feared she had been killed, so Fraser could avoid a costly divorce settlement, but a massive police investigation failed to trace her body.

Some five years later, Fraser was put on trial, convicted and jailed for life. In 2006 he was freed pending an appeal.

The appeal was heard last year, and at the end of the submissions, his bail was withdrawn and he was returned to jail after 19 months of freedom.