Lynda Spence: Man admitted holding her, court told

A MAN accused of murdering missing businesswoman Lynda Spence told his former partner he had held her at a house, a court has heard.

Jacqueline Watt, 38, said David Parker originally told her he was “babysitting” a man but he later admitted it was Ms Spence, who disappeared in April 2011.

Ms Watt told the High Court in Glasgow that she got a mortgage from Ms Spence in 2009.

She described Ms Spence as a “dodgy broker” and said she and Parker were watching publicity about Ms Spence’s disappearance on the news when he told her “that’s the him”.

She told the court: “I said, ‘that’s the lady that got me my mortgage, do you think she’s either bumped the wrong person or done a runner because she owes so much money?’.

“David was quite agitated and he said, ‘that’s the him’.

“He had told me (previously) he was babysitting a man who was in trouble with money, keeping some man safe in a house. But he said it wasn’t his house.

“I asked him, ‘what do you mean that’s the him?’. He said, ‘it wasn’t a him, it was a her’.

“He was saying, ‘you don’t understand, I can’t tell you’. He was upset, agitated, scared. He was in fear.

“I just thought he was talking gibberish - he was out his nut.”

Ms Watt said she was unable to get a mortgage on the high street, so she had to go to a “dodgy broker” - Ms Spence.

She said two other women who were getting mortgages at the same time paid £500 up front and “got bumped”.

The witness said she was lucky to get hers.

Ms Watt also said Parker accused her of “wearing a wire”, but that she had told him, “you’ve been watching too much CSI”.

She claimed the conversation about “babysitting” took place in April or May 2011, and that Parker told her about it being Ms Spence in October that year, about a week before he was arrested in connection with her disappearance.

Parker, 38, Colin Coats and Philip Wade, both 42, and Paul Smith, 47, are accused of murdering Ms Spence, 27.

It is alleged Coats, Wade, Smith and Parker kidnapped her from a street in Glasgow and held her at a flat in West Kilbride, Ayrshire, where they are said to have beaten and tortured her.

They deny the charges against them.

The trial before Lord Pentland continues.