Dundee man in court on rape and murder charge

A MAN appeared in court yesterday charged with raping and murdering a mother-of-three who vanished on a night-out.

Patrick Rae, 40, denied the offences and claimed that Mary McLaren, 34, willingly had sex with him, and that he was not there when she was killed.

Ms McLaren, of Rowantree Crescent, Dundee, went missing after visiting a nightclub. Her body was found almost two weeks later, in undergrowth at Ladywell roundabout in the city centre.

The charge against Rae alleges that between 25 February and 10 March at North Marketgait, Dundee, he sexually assaulted and raped Ms McLaren, and murdered her. It is claimed he punched her on the head and banged her head on the ground and against a wall, struck her on the neck with a knife, and seized and compressed her throat.

At a brief hearing at the High Court in Edinburgh, the defence counsel Mark Stewart, QC, tendered a not guilty plea on Rae's behalf, and submitted special defences of consent and alibi.