Body-in-boot killer jailed for eight years

THE body-in-the-boot killer, who for ten months drove about in his car carrying the corpse of his former lover, was jailed for eight years yesterday.

Stuart Allen, 64, who met his victim through the lonely hearts column of a local newspaper, was told by a judge that but for his age he would have served longer in prison.

Relatives of the dead woman, Ella Douglas, 57, a grandmother, of Burns Street, Dumfries, welcomed the sentence after watching Allen being led from the dock at the High Court in Edinburgh.

Her son, Dougie McLachlan, said: " The sentence is just and fair. Nothing can make us feel better about what happened, and nothing can bring my mother back."

He added: "We were very close to her, and so were the children. As they grow up, they will miss the fun and love which they had from their granny.

"My mother was a warm, lively and loving person. She was kind and thoughtful and everyone who knew her misses her."

Allen, a divorced former sailor, was originally accused of murdering Mrs Douglas, also divorced, in his home at Nithsdale Mills, Dumfries, in October 2000, but his guilty plea to the reduced charge of culpable homicide was accepted by the Crown. He also admitted attempting to pervert the course of justice by hiding the body, wrapped in carpet and polythene sheeting, in his Ford Escort.

The couple, who met in 1998, formed a relationship, and although it ended they remained friends.

At the time of the killing, Mrs Douglas had been staying in Allen’s home, sleeping on the sofa. On the morning of her death, she went to his bedroom to ask if he wanted a cup of tea, and a row flared. During a struggle, Allen grabbed her round the throat. Mrs Douglas was 5ft tall and weighed six stone.

When he found no signs of life and failed in attempts to revive her, Allen slumped in a chair and sat for eight hours. He then panicked, put the body into the boot of his car and told a neighbour he and Mrs Douglas were going on holiday.

Her family received postcards from Hadrian’s Wall and the Lake District.

Later, Allen announced she had left him for another man. Worried relatives could get no answer at her house and she was reported missing to the police.

During months of searching, Allen claimed to officers that Mrs Douglas had walked out on him. He also said he had sold his car.

In August 2001, he was seen driving the car in Dumfries and it was stopped.

The advocate depute, Robert McCreadie, said a detective noticed "a strong obnoxious smell" in the car. It was so bad a colleague had to stick his head out of the window while driving the vehicle to a police station.

The body was discovered along with Mrs Douglas’s passport and birth certificate. She was identified from dental records.

The defence counsel, Donald Findlay QC, said there had been no premeditation, or ill-will towards Mrs Douglas.

He added that Allen could not contemplate burying or otherwise disposing of the body.

Mr Findlay continued: "He simply wanted this problem to disappear. He wanted the clock to be turned back and to discover what had happened was some kind of nightmare.

"Having embarked on this course of not bringing this to the attention of the authorities, he was on the proverbial treadmill.

"It is easy to say he should have done this or that, but the reality is that, having gone down that road, with every day and week and month that passes it becomes more difficult to turn back and put the situation to rights. That is the situation he found himself in."

The judge, Lord Carloway, said Allen had used lethal force while compressing the neck of a woman of small stature, and had then concealed the death and his part in it.