Killing of teen was an 'atrocity', jury is told

Jurors have been told that the man accused of murdering teenager Zoe Nelson and burning her body is guilty of an "atrocity".

A trial has heard 15 days of evidence and speeches about the discovery of the 17-year-old student's badly burned body among scrub on a coal bing in Lanarkshire, and the murder hunt that put Robert Bayne in the dock at the High Court in Edinburgh.

In her closing speech to the jury yesterday, advocate depute Lesley Shand QC, prosecuting, said that the murderer had built a pyre to burn her body, either to kill her or to destroy evidence, She described the murder and attempted cover-up as an "atrocity" and asked the jurors them to find Bayne, 21, guilty of the charges he faces.

Dismissing the possibility that the teenager had died by accident last May in a wood near Wishaw, Lanarkshire, Ms Shand said a wad of newspapers appeared to have been placed under Zoe before the fire was lit.

"In effect a pyre has been built to burn this body," she said.

Ms Shand told how the teenager had been lying with a sheet of plastic over her face and only a murderer would take the step of setting her on fire.

"Think about it, ladies and gentlemen," said Ms Shand. "Striking the match, striking the lighter, setting light to her clothes.

"Think then about watching her body start to burn as the fire gains a hold.

"Then leaving the scene knowing that such a fire had been set in train by you and was likely to continue in its dreadful course.

"Only a murderer would go to those dreadful lengths.

"In all the circumstances, ladies and gentlemen, you should have no difficulty in concluding that Zoe Nelson was the victim of a murderous attack."

The jury was also told that throughout the day there had been a number of witnesses who had seen Bayne, intoxicated and aggressive, in the teenager's company. Bayne, of Cambusnethan, Wishaw denies the charges.

Judge Lady Dorrian is expected to begin her legal directions to the jury today.