Severed-head woman was migrant worker, 36, from eastern Europe

Published on Thursday 3 April 2008 22:24

A WOMAN whose severed head was found on a Scottish beach by two children was a migrant worker from eastern Europe, it emerged yesterday.

Police investigating the macabre murder were last night talking to the 800-strong community of immigrant workers living in the Angus area, in an effort to find out more about the 36-year old, who is understood to have lived in the UK for more than 18 months.

Detectives said she had been employed as a casual, unskilled worker in Brechin, a few miles from where her remains were found on Seagate beach, Arbroath. Her head was discovered in a plastic bag by two sisters, aged eight and 11, as they played on the sands on Monday. Police searching the shoreline then found two hands.

Officers also revealed that forensic experts were studying two small suspected human body-parts found further down the coast at Carnoustie.

The top-floor flat in South Esk Street, Brechin, where the woman lived, was the centre of intense police activity throughout yesterday.

Scenes-of-crime officers were seen taking away a large number of items in cardboard boxes and thick paper sacks. Neighbours told of seeing what looked like cannabis plants being taken from the building, Earlsdon House, on Wednesday night.

The woman had been living with up to nine male and female migrant workers in the three-bedroom property.

The victim's name and nationality will not be released until her next of kin in her native country have been told.

Detective Chief Inspector Graham McMillan said his team of officers faced a "complex and prolonged" investigation.

The first breakthrough came when the woman's employer reported her missing on Wednesday after her description was issued. She had failed to turn up for work on Monday.

Robert Keith, 16, one of the residents of Earlsdon House, said: "The police arrived at 7 o'clock last night and sealed off the back of the house and wouldn't let anybody out of the flats until they had spoken to them.

"It's kind of unbelievable what's going on."

Mr McMillan said that a "phenomenal" response from the public had led to the identification of the woman. He explained: "We will be speaking to a number of people over the course of the day in a bid to establish the woman's last known movements, when she was last seen, and to establish the circumstances of her death.

"Establishing the identity of this woman is the first step in a very complex and detailed inquiry."

The woman, he explained, had been living and working in the UK for at least 18 months and had been staying at Earlsdon House for some time.

Mr McMillan said: "The building in which she resided has a number of migrant workers of varying nationalities and we have been speaking to her last-known neighbours.

"We are gathering statements from people who live in the area and trying to establish her movements and ultimately to get to her cause of death."

He said forensic tests on two small "suspected" human remains were being conducted at the mortuary in Dundee.

They had been discovered on the beach at Carnoustie, seven miles down the coast from Arbroath, by coastguards on Wednesday.

PART OF INFLUX

THE woman whose severed head was found by two schoolgirls on Monday was one of a large number of migrants from eastern Europe – Poles, Latvians, Lithuanians and Russians – who have settled in and around the Brechin area. They work in agriculture, factories and shops.

A local farmer, who employs a large number of migrant workers, said: "I employ mainly Latvians at the moment. But there must be at least 800 eastern Europeans working in the Brechin area. They are all good workers and I've got a lot of time for them. This is just a shocking thing to have happened."

There has already been a previous murder in the local migrant community.

In July 2005, Marek Smrz, a 21-year-old Czech fruit picker, was stabbed through the heart with a steak knife by a heroin addict. Adam Gallagher was jailed for life for his murder at the High Court in Perth.