Jenny Methven murder trial: Jury urged to find William Kean guilty

A PROSECUTOR has urged a jury to find William Kean guilty of the “savage, brutal murder” of 80-year-old Jenny Methven.

Advocate depute Alex Prentice QC was making his closing speech in the trial of 46-year-old Kean from Blairgowrie, who denies murdering Mrs Methven in her cottage in Forteviot, Perthshire, on 20 February.

Mr Prentice told the jury of nine women and six men that there were only two questions to consider.

He said: “Was murder committed, was Jenny Methven murdered? I suggest the answer to that would be unanimously yes.

“Mrs Methven was beaten round the head with a blunt instrument. The back of her skull is fractured and pieces of bone entered her brain and she died.

“The second question is who did murder her and I will be inviting you to convict Mr Kean.”

The court has heard that Mrs Methven’s body was found by her son David Methven, 58, when he returned home from work at about 5:10pm. Mr Prentice told the jurors that this was a circumstantial case, but added: “People who commit crimes tend not to want to get caught and tend to commit them where only two people are present – the murderer and the victim.”

The prosecutor said that Kean’s DNA was found on Mrs Methven’s wrist and a fingerprint in blood was found on the wall phone beside her body.

Kean’s mobile phone put him in the vicinity of her cottage on the morning of 20 February and his car was caught on CCTV heading in that direction.

Mrs Methven was on the phone to a friend Elizabeth Cook when she ended the call by saying: “There’s a vehicle reversing up my driveway.”

Mr Prentice told the jury: “You should conclude that the car reversing was Mr Kean’s.”

He said: “Mr Kean, for whatever reason is the person who rained these awful blows on Jenny Methven and having completed that ghastly crime, he left her to die and went about his business as if nothing had ­happened.”

Defence QC Brian McConnachie, in his closing speech, said to the jurors: “The one thing that will constantly be repeated in your head is the word why.

“The Crown in this case are relying on the CSI generation. They are looking to show you the fingerprint, the DNA and the blood. That’s the golden ticket, that the crime solved.

“This is not a whodunnit or a murder mystery.”

Mr McConnachie told the jury they were not there to play detective or solve the case.

Mr McConnachie said that if Kean had killed Mrs Methven there would be blood on his clothes, blood on his face and blood in his car.

He went on: “There is no evidence of any blood on him or in the car. He meets people an hour later in Broughty Ferry and he’s not covered in blood.”

The trial continues.