'I've done a terrible thing for you' – killer confessed to wife during row

A MAN who battered a friend to death with a metal bar confessed to the crime during a drunken row with his wife on holiday, a court has heard.

Thomas Pryde, now 38, attacked lorry driver Adam Alexander during a fight at the victim's home in Errol, Perthshire, more than ten years ago.

He then buried his friend's body in nearby land but the corpse has never been found.

He pleaded guilty to culpable homicide at the High Court in Glasgow yesterday.

Prosecutors said Pryde's wife went to police after his confession during a break on the Greek island of Zante.

Pryde later admitted the crime to police, telling officers: "I just completely lost the plot."

Defence counsel Ian Duguid QC said the fight broke out when Mr Alexander threatened Pryde's family. He said Pryde had gone to Atholl Cottage on November 14, 1999, to pay Mr Alexander for a motorcycle he had agreed to buy, and that they ended up assaulting each other in a disagreement over the disposal of some computer equipment.

Despite the fact Pryde showed police where he said he buried Mr Alexander, the body has never been found.

Judge Lord Bracadale said: "You have pled guilty to a most serious and disturbing crime of killing Mr Alexander and disposing of his body.

"That happened ten years ago and his body has never been recovered."

Alex Prentice QC, prosecuting, said of the May 2006 confession: "The accused was abroad on holiday with his wife.

"One evening near the end of the holiday, the accused became extremely drunk and confessed that he had killed Adam Alexander some years previously.

"It was not until January 2007 that she reported this fact to the police and a murder investigation was set in motion."

Mr Prentice later added: "He was drunk and, during an argument, the accused said to his wife that he had done a terrible thing and that he had done it for her and their son."

Pryde, who is now separated from his wife, was said to have been aware that she was going to the police.

He initially denied the killing but then admitted the crime during a police interview in September 2007.

The court heard how inquiries revealed he had told friends back in 2003 and 2004 that he had killed Mr Alexander, saying he had "done Adam" and "it was a case of me or him".

Pryde, from Scone, Perthshire, was already serving a five-year jail sentence for firing shots at a businessman's home in a dispute over money in 2004.

Pryde will be sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh on 22 April.

Mr Alexander's mother, Patricia Bremner, had been devastated by the loss of her son and denied a proper burial site to visit, the court heard.

Speaking afterwards, Detective Chief Superintendent Roddy Ross, of Tayside Police, said: "This has been a very distressing period for her.

"Today's conviction is another step along the road for her in her search for Adam and for justice for Adam."

DCS Ross appealed for any information the public might have relating to the location of Mr Alexander's remains.

He added: "All the evidence suggests that Adam is buried somewhere down on the Carse of Gowrie.

"But it's a large area, and we don't know exactly where."