Arlene killer makes appeal over trial

Published on Friday 19 December 2003 00:00

CONVICTED wife-killer Nat Fraser’s lawyers have lodged an appeal based on new evidence from his teenage son.

Jamie Fraser, 16, is set to give judges an explanation about his mother Arlene’s missing rings - a vital part of the prosecution case in the Fraser murder trial.

Fraser, 45, was jailed for life and ordered to serve a minimum of 25 years after he was convicted of hiring a hitman to murder his wife, who was separated from him.

In his appeal lodged yesterday, Fraser is also expected to attack his former friend, pig farmer Hector Dick, who originally faced criminal charges alongside him.

After Dick was cleared, he said that mother-of-two Arlene had been strangled, that Fraser had set fire to her body, pulled out her teeth and scattered her remains.

But it is believed that Fraser will claim Dick contradicted his evidence in newspaper interviews.

At the trial it was revealed that Fraser had planted his wife’s wedding, engagement and eternity rings inside their former home in New Elgin, Moray, ten days after she disappeared.

It was alleged in court that the killer wanted to make it seem as if his wife had left him. But now it is thought that Fraser’s son Jamie has given evidence that the rings were inside the house before that date.

At his trial Fraser insisted his wife Arlene had run off after asking him for a divorce.