Lynda Spence’s mother breaks down in court

THE mother of financial adviser Lynda Spence broke down yesterday as she told a murder trial jury: “She was my life.”

Patricia Spence, 56, told the High Court in Glasgow: “I only had the one lassie. She was my life. I just keep thinking she’s going to come back.”

Mrs Spence was giving evidence in the trial of Colin Coats, 42, David Parker, 38, Paul Smith, 47, and Philip Wade, 42, who deny abducting, torturing and murdering Miss Spence at a flat at Meadowfoot Road, West Kilbride, between 14 and 28 April 2011.

Later, the court was halted after she wept again as she looked at telephone texts she had sent to her daughter’s business associate in the wake of her disappearance.

In evidence, Mrs Spence told Solicitor General Lesley Thomson QC that she was an “overprotective mum” and said she used to text or phone her daughter every day.

She added: “We were very close. She was like my friend – my best friend.”

The jury heard that Miss Spence worked in a TSB call centre after leaving school at 16 and worked for a few years with the Co-operative Bank, before
moving to HSBC, and then setting up in business for herself as a financial adviser.

At one point Miss Spence owned two properties in Buckingham Terrace, Glasgow. She lived in one and her parents in the other. When she disappeared on 14 April, 2011, Miss Spence was living in Ruchill.

In court, her mother told how Miss Spence had bought them a caravan as an anniversary present, and had paid the rents of the flats they moved to after leaving Buckingham Terrace.

Mrs Spence said the last time she saw her daughter was about 6pm on 13 April, 2011, when she arrived at her parents’ then home in Castlebank Gardens, Glasgow.

The court was told it was Mrs Spence’s birthday and that birthdays were normally celebrated in style in the Spence family.

Mrs Spence said her daughter turned up with her friend Amelia, whose real name was
Aliona Codreanu.

She added: “I was kissing and cuddling her and said: ‘Where are we going?’ She said she was busy. She never said anything was wrong, but she was dead tense.”

The court heard that on 14 April Mrs Spence received a text from her daughter saying she was driving to London.

The trial before judge Lord Pentland continues.