Arlene Fraser murder trial: Estranged husband called to testify

• Nat Fraser stands accused of murdering his estranged wife in 1998 in the opening day of the case

• Estranged husband claims alibi at time of wife’s killing

• Alleged that Mr Fraser, knowing his wife planned on divorce, plotted to muder her

• Lord Bracadale announces that further court cases are to be filmed for forthcoming documentary

Mrs Fraser’s estranged husband, Nat Fraser, 53, denied acting with others in her killing, and said he had an alibi. Mr Fraser added that if she was murdered, the person responsible was Hector Dick.

Opening evidence was given by Mrs Fraser’s mother, Isabelle Thompson. She recalled her “outgoing” daughter who always took great pride and care in her appearance.

Mrs Thompson, 66, said Arlene had two children, Jamie and Natalie, who were aged ten and five in 1998 when she vanished, aged 33.

The children had been very important to her.

“It was quite surprising, she made a very good mother. I did not expect it of her but she turned out to be a very good mother, a very loving mother,” Mrs Thompson told the High Court in Edinburgh.

It is alleged that Fraser, knowing his wife had consulted a lawyer about a divorce and obtaining a financial settlement from him, acted with others unknown to arrange the “surreptitious” purchase of a car which was hidden at Wester Hillside Farm, Elgin, Moray, on 27 April, 1998.

Next day, Fraser and the others are said to have murdered Mrs Fraser at her home in Smith Street, New Elgin, by compressing her neck and strangling her, or by other unknown means.

Previously, Fraser had shown malice and ill-will, towards his wife, it is claimed.

Lawyers for Fraser submitted two special defences on his behalf, of alibi and incrimination.

First, it is said that on the morning of the alleged murder, Fraser, who had a fruit and vegetable business, began making deliveries about 7:30am in the Elgin, Keith and Fochabers area with his vanboy. He stopped at a public phone box to make a call to a woman around 9:40am, and continued the deliveries until he and the vanboy finished their rounds at 5:30pm.

The incrimination defence states that, if a murder was committed, it was not committed by Fraser but by Hector Dick, the first person on the prosecution’s list of witnesses, while “acting with another or others meantime unknown.”

After the jury selection had been completed, Lord Bracadale explained that the head of Scotland’s judges, Lord Hamilton, the Lord President, had given permission for certain trials to be filmed, not for contemporary news reporting but for the production of a documentary at a later date.

“I want to make it absolutely clear that the jury will not be filmed or broadcast in the course of this exercise, so you can rest assured about that,” added Lord Bracadale.