Fraser tells death trial of his love for Arlene

Published on Friday 24 January 2003 00:00

ELGIN businessman Nat Fraser today told of his love for the wife he is accused of murdering and his difficult years since her disappearance.

At the start of his evidence in his own defence, Fraser’s lawyer, Paul McBride QC asked him: "Did you kill your wife?"

"No Sir," replied Fraser. He also denied arranging for anyone else to kill her or being involved in her disappearance in any way.

Fraser, asked if his marriage was a happy one, told the High Court in Edinburgh: "It was quite stormy at times." But, he said, he still wanted Arlene back when they split in 1998, shortly before she disappeared.

The court heard that Arlene had walked out on fruit and veg wholesaler Fraser before, staying in a women’s refuge on an occasion and seeing a solicitor about a divorce. Fraser said he thought his wife was a good mother to their two children and she was not short of money. He paid the bills and gave her 100 a week as an allowance.

But, he told the court, Arlene could be "volatile" and he agreed that he could be too.

He told how they would fall out, fall back in again and he knew that in 1998 Arlene had seen a solicitor about divorce - again - which the Crown claim is a motive for murder.

Fraser, 44, of Smith Street, New Elgin, now faces an altered indictment accusing him of murdering Arlene - along with unknown accomplices - knowing that she had seen a solicitor about getting a divorce and financial settlement from her husband.

Earlier references to "a conspiracy" involving farmer Hector Dick, 46, of Wester Hillside Farm, Mosstowie, Elgin and salesman Glenn Lucas, 51, of 14 Station Road, Surfleet, Spalding, Lincolnshire, have gone.

The trial continues.