Court told how accused found body

THE fiance of body-in-bags victim Heather Stacey told police that she died while he was out buying chips, a court has heard.

Shop worker Alan Cameron, 56, of Edinburgh, who admits hiding and dismembering Ms Stacey's body, but denies murdering her at her home in Edinburgh, said he thought the heavy drinker had had a heart attack after he popped out for just 20 minutes.

Jurors at the High Court in Livingston were yesterday played tapes of an interview carried out with Cameron by Lothian and Borders Police in January 2009.

He was arrested and quizzed two days after the head and remains of Ms Stacey were found in a bag by a dog walker near her flat in Granton, Edinburgh on Hogmanay, 2008. He told police he had got engaged to the mother-of-four in August 2007.

Cameron told police:"I went to get her chips. I went in to her room after and says to her 'There's your food' and well, she's died. I shook her to see, thinking she was asleep but there was no life. I dunno what had happened or if she'd had a heart attack or if it was due to the drink."

The trial continues.