Arlene's dad's plea over daughter's fate

Published on Thursday 30 January 2003 00:00

THE anguished father of Arlene Fraser has appealed to her husband to reveal the secrets of the final hours she spent alive.

As businessman Nat Fraser begins a life sentence for her murder, Hector McInness, 62, who lives in Bonnyrigg, Midlothian, said her family would not find true peace until they knew the full truth. The 44-year-old has continued to protest his innocence over her death and never revealed exactly what happened to her body.

Mr McInness also told of his fears for her children as they face up to the fact their father was responsible for her horrific death. Speaking from his semi-detached home on the edge of town, Mr McInness said: "We are pleased he has got 25 years as we didn’t think he would get that long.

"Our main concern is for the children. They have just found out that their father murdered their mother which is a very difficult thing to cope with."

Mr McInnes also made an appeal to Nat Fraser to give up the secrets of his daughter’s final hours straight after his trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.

Arlene, 33, was strangled by a hitman hired by her husband Nat, 44, who then disposed of her body by burning it, grinding the remains and scattering them so that no trace of her remained.

Mr McInness said: "Obviously we’d like to have a gravestone, but we haven’t got any remains to bury. We haven’t been able to give Arlene a Christian burial and it looks like we may not be able to.

"It’s definitely been a roller-coaster, up one day, down the next. We hope we can see the light at the end of the tunnel this weekend and we can start our grieving in peace. I’ve waited patiently for four and a half years to get the result that we want."

Mr McInnes said he took early retirement from his job as a Naval aircraft mechanic in Preston, Lancashire, in order to move to the Midlothian village of Bonnyrigg where he could be closer to his family.

He said his abiding memory of Arlene was of "her doing her hair, doing her make-up, going to Next, leaving things lying about - the girl next door who lived for her children."

He added: "It’s definitely been a roller-coaster, up one day, down the next. We hope we can see the light at the end of the tunnel this weekend and we can start our grieving in peace."

Arlene’s mother, Isabelle Thompson, who has been divorced from Mr McInness, also told how Fraser had tormented his wife’s family by blocking access to her two children, Jamie and Natalie. She said Fraser had changed the phone line at his home in Smith Street, New Elgin, allowed the children to reply to only a handful of letters and insisted on arranging visits through solicitors.

She said: "We’re strangers to the kids. I’ve had two or three letters over the last five years from them. If they want to see us they should be given the chance. One of the times we had the phone number I phoned on Christmas Day and the line was permanently engaged.

"I ended up wondering if Jamie’s mobile was switched on, so I got hold of Jamie and he said: ‘My Dad’s on the internet’. I thought, what a way for him to spend Christmas.

"There has never been a reason Nat has said why he’s acted like this against us."

At the end of a 15-day-trial, a jury of seven men and seven women found Fraser guilty by a majority verdict after deliberating for nearly three hours.

Trial judge Lord Mackay, in imposing a life sentence, ordered Fraser to serve a minimum of 25 years in prison for what he called an "evil, cold-blooded killing".

There was a loud cry of "yes!" as the verdict was delivered inside a packed courtroom where more than 100 people filled the public gallery, some of them standing.

The case was only the third in Scottish legal history in which a defender has been convicted of murder in the absence of the victim’s body being found.

The 2 million inquiry was also the most complex and expensive investigation in Grampian Police’s history, involving nearly 100 police officers over four years.

Arlene’s sister Carol Gillies of Erskine, Renfrewshire, said the thought of securing justice by bringing Nat Fraser to trial had kept the family going.

She said: "What has kept us going is the belief that we would get this into court and we would get justice."

The family heard in court for the first time how Arlene had been killed by a hitman hired by her husband, who then dismembered and burned his wife’s body before grinding it up and scattering it.

Detective Superintendent Jim Stephen, of Grampian Police, who led the inquiry, said: "The decision of the jury will not bring Arlene back, back to her children and back to her family and her many friends.

"But after nearly five long and painful years, justice has at last been done."