Arlene Fraser murder trial resumes

No evidence had been heard since Thursday of last week and jurors returned to the High Court in Edinburgh to be thanked by the judge, Lord Bracadale, for their patience.

The judge said: “A potential issue was raised in relation to one of your number. Having taken time to investigate that matter, I am satisfied there is no difficulty, and accordingly we can now proceed with the trial.”

Nat Fraser, 53, denies acting with others to murder his estranged wife, Arlene, 33, who went missing from her home in New Elgin, Moray, on 28 April, 1998.

He pleads alibi and incrimination, saying a former friend, Hector Dick, was responsible if Mrs Fraser was killed.

Mr Dick, 56, a farmer, of Mosstowie, near Elgin, completed his evidence on his seventh day in the witness box. He repeated earlier denials that he had been involved in Mrs Fraser’s disappearance, although he believed a car he had obtained for Fraser, had been used.

He said Fraser had returned the car to him, and he had burned it and taken the wreckage to a scrapyard.

Mr Dick added that police had made it plain to him that it would have been in his interests to reveal to them the whereabouts of Mrs Fraser’s body.

The advocate-depute, Alex Prentice, QC, asked: “What is the reason for you not being able to tell the police where the body was?”

Mr Dick said “Because I did not know.”

The court has heard that Mrs Fraser made a phone call to her children’s school about 9:40am the day she vanished, and the school called back about ten minutes later but got no reply.

Ian Gordon, 70, said he had worked 20 years for Mr Dick, and he recalled they had a cup of tea in a bothy on the farm about 9am. Next, they cleaned a skip, before Mr Gordon was sent on a job to Gordonstoun. He said he would have left about or just after 10am.

Mr Prentice asked: “Did you see Hector Dick leave the farm before you departed for Gordonstoun?”

Mr Gordon said: “No.”

He had been away for about 90 minutes, and he saw Mr Dick on his return. Mr Dick was wearing the same clothing as earlier.

“Did he appear any different to you from any other day?” asked Mr Prentice.

“No,” said Mr Gordon.

The witness confirmed to the defence solicitor-advocate, John Scott, QC, that his daughter had lived with Mr Dick for a number of years.

Questioned about the washing of the skip, Mr Gordon rejected the notion that it had been in the afternoon rather than the morning.

Mr Scott pointed out that in a statement to the police in 2006, Mr Gordon had said he left for Gordonstoun “no later than 9:45am.”

Mr Gordon replied: “I do not check the time before I go.”

In his final questioning, Mr Prentice referred Mr Gordon to another statement, made much nearer the event in 1998, in which he had said he left the farm about 10am.

Mr Prentice asked: “Would you ever lie for somebody in the High Court?”

Mr Gordon said: “No.”

The trial continues.