All language subtitles for Murder Case The Vanishing Cyclist S01E02

People go missing in the Highlands a lot for many different reasons.

Usually they're found pretty soon.

What was unusual was that he was not found.

Mountain rescue teams are searching for a man...

Tony Parsons was last seen late on the night...

...at the Bridge de Bourque Hotel.

He was taking part in a charity cycle ride.

No trace was ever found of him or his bike.

I kept thinking he would just walk in.

I didn't want to think about it being bad.

Where the hell are you? What has happened?

Loads of questions, unanswered.

Somewhere on that stretch of road...

Tony Parsons vanished off the face of the earth.

We spent three years coming to terms with the fact that my dad wasn't coming home.

And then all of a sudden one phone call flipped everything upside down.

There's a lot of detail in that initial call that starts to make you think this could actually be genuine.

What's your name, please?

What's your name, ma'am?

Dr Caroline Newerhead.

Our ex-partner had told her the biggest secret I have is that I've killed somebody.

I can't believe it would be by casting a body.

All the information tends to tie up.

They need to be arrested.

What can you tell me about your involvement in the disappearance of Anthony Parsons?

But what's a crime going to be at this point?

We don't have a body.

We don't have a cause of death.

We've only got the story that Caroline's told us.

Robert, I'm bringing this interview to a conclusion, but the investigation is far from over.

We need to act on this and we need to move it now.

We need to go and find this body.

The three years, not having my dad, not knowing where he is or what's happened, that literally eats you up

from inside.

Having to wait three years, three years of thinking, well, we're never going to find him again.

We're never going to be able to grieve.

I just got a phone call from a detective inspector asking to speak to me.

We were told that credible intelligence had come in.

We got informed that the police were going to be excavating a piece of land.

Caroline had dropped a can of Red Bull marking that spot where Tony Parsons was buried.

The Red Bull can was her starting point.

But she had been given further specific information from Sandy that standing at that point, looking in a particular direction,

looking at a landmark in that direction and a number of metres from that point, that is where he indicated

it's where the body was.

It was three years since this body had been buried there, so to the untrained eye, all the ground looked

the same.

The plan moving forward was a case of who do we need to help us here?

External specialists, because we need people who can provide their expertise with ground conditions, who can assist us with digging

and filtering through earth.

And that's where Professor Lorna Dawson came in.

All cases that you work on are special and distinctive and unique.

But there is something about this particular investigation that will stay with me forever.

I got a phone call from the SIO.

They asked me if I could go along to the site and see if there were any clues with the

soil or the vegetation.

And whether there might be an area where someone might have been buried a few years ago.

The location was remote.

There was snow covering the mountains.

And there were no sounds but the wild animals, the birds.

And I think that's quite important because if someone was trying to dispose of a body, you could be there

and no one would see you digging a grave.

When you got there and you saw the red bull can, it was moorland, it was heath, heather.

There was a track and either side of the track there were clumps of vegetation.

But there was an area of about two metres by one metre.

It had obviously been disturbed fairly recently because the soil was mixed up so that the dark, deep peat was

exposed.

And it had left an impervious surface. The water sat on that peat. And because it was so cold, ice

had formed.

That was unusual because it was the only bit that had ice and moss only. All the other areas had

shrubs.

It was her professional opinion. That's a deposition site there where Tony has potentially been put.

You could see that something had gone on there.

I thought it supported what the witness had told the police.

That's the area that the excavation has to focus on.

You know you're looking for somebody's loved one and they are relying on you for answers.

It's a very heavy burden to carry.

So there was quite a large team of experts required. Forensic archaeologists, they were able to very carefully skim off

using tiny brushes and tiny spatulas.

Layers, centimetres deep. And each of those layers could be carefully looked through just to make sure that we didn't

lose any potential evidence.

It was a very methodical, very structured event.

But as we went down, I'll always remember the moment where we saw this little piece of red fabric.

That was the colour of the fabric that Mr Parsons was wearing when he was last seen cycling home that

day.

I'm getting goosebumps down my back again here talking about it.

Immediately everything was stopped and a phone call went in back to senior management.

And we've got the sleeve of a red jacket here.

Carefully the two anthropologists removed the peat from around Mr Parsons.

And it is an image that will stay with me.

Mr Parsons was about 50 centimetres down.

It's quite a cold, constant temperature at that depth.

The preservation of the cold, wet peat had kept Mr Parsons so well that he still looked like the images

of him on the day that he disappeared.

That was Tony. When I saw him face to face, that was Tony.

You want to know the answers, but realistically, you don't.

And it's not a case of that you're thinking about yourself.

You suddenly become, how am I going to look after everybody else?

When you're having to stand there and watch your mum absolutely break down, it's tough.

It really is tough.

They came out and they told me that they'd found Tony.

Obviously my words were, are you sure?

Are you sure?

And they said yes.

The injuries that Tony had were horrific.

My mum was an absolute wreck.

Because at that moment, all her hopes of ever having that possibility of seeing my dad again were just gone.

There was nothing left.

We had Mountain Rescue in with us to lift Tony's body.

The weather was atrocious that day. It was very low cloud cover.

We got everybody into position.

Everyone had to be done right.

And there was suddenly a shout.

And it was the diggermen.

Guys, stop. Look.

Now, all morning, you couldn't see the hills surrounding you.

And at that point in time, the cloud had lifted and we must have been surrounded by about 40 red

deer.

We are standing there, ready to lift Tony out of there, and these wild animals, they're just standing watching us.

We all just took a breath, looked at each other, and then that was it.

We lifted Tony up and out.

It was quite a moment.

We're all made up of molecules, these elements that make us our body.

But there is the soul.

It could have gone unsolved.

It could have still been in that cold, dark place alone.

Once you've put a loved one to rest, they are at rest and the family have somewhere to go and

grieve.

I didn't personally feel that bad about it.

Because I'd expected it.

I had been waiting three and a half years for that news.

So it wasn't as big a shock.

Being told that he was found buried.

That made me feel physically sick.

How?

Why?

Where Tony was recovered was an area where there was kill pits.

It's where the farmer or the gamekeeper will dig a pit, basically, and dispose of fallen livestock.

Anything that had been shot by sporting tourists, basically, on the estate that wasn't required for meat,

was disposed of by the estate in this kill pit.

The worst can't describe what would go through somebody's head to put another human being into that position.

They're horrible.

The family of a grandad whose remains were found in Argyle more than three years after he went missing say

they'd been left devastated by his death.

We didn't know the details.

A lot of it was kept from us, obviously, because it was an ongoing investigation.

The recovery of the remains is a massive, massive moment in the investigation.

But for us, it's literally just the start.

The end goal for us is to find the evidence to convict Sandy and Robert for whatever's happened here.

There are two different perspectives on this story.

You've got the inner one.

The people at the centre of this criminal investigation know what happened.

The police are figuring it out.

And then outside that, you've got the rest of us.

And as a reporter, our job is to try to get the inside story and bring it out.

Why haven't these two men been charged?

Why are they back out into their communities?

What's going on?

The boys went to school here.

They had a huge group of friends here.

Everybody knew them.

People knew their parents.

No one could quite believe the calculated way in which this appeared to be unfolding at that time.

That not only had this poor man been killed, but he had also been killed in a way where his

body was hidden.

If you were to tell this story to anybody who doesn't work in our field of work,

you would probably think, well, he's told his girlfriend that this is where the body is.

She's told the police and lo and behold, the police have dug in that location and found the body.

But we can't just jump to the conclusion that because he told Caroline that it was him and his brother

who were responsible for this,

then that must be true. Other people could be involved here.

At that point, it becomes a whole new dynamic of investigation.

Don't bury yourself in a peat bog, so we know we're dealing with criminality.

It's just exactly what crimes do we have, what we're looking to prove, what we're looking to show.

There wasn't any DNA found on any of the clothing or on the body itself to link it back to

the people responsible.

We've got a story, but we don't have a case. We've got to find evidence that links them to this

crime.

The car Sandy had been driving that night had been seized, but then we were able to do quite a

lot of inquiry round about it.

And we were able to actually, believe it or not, track back and we were able to show that that

car did have damage on the night that Anthony Parsons went missing.

Other people who worked in the Orca Estate were able to see the significant damage to the car before it

was taken away to be repaired.

Sandy and Robert had given the explanation that they struck a deer that night.

And that was really significant because we were able to establish that every time that car had been damaged previously,

through the insurance, it had went to a specific garage to be repaired.

On this occasion, the vehicle didn't go to that place. There was no report to the insurance.

That was really, really interesting because if you had just struck a deer, why would you not claim your insurance?

Not only that, the place the vehicle had been taken to for repair was miles away.

Actually, the garage owner still had images.

That car did have near-side damage to it, which would be consistent of where they would have struck a

cyclist.

It just adds another wee piece to the puzzle and another wee piece of evidence required to convict these individuals.

When my dad was found, we found out at that point that it was potentially a road accident and that

my dad had been struck.

One of the hardest things going through all of this was the fact that we didn't know the details.

Because of our profession, my brother and I, being in the police, we also knew, don't ask questions.

When the inquiry seized their mobile phones, we could see the conversations that were going on between the brothers and

other people.

We then found a video. You could see the dashboard, the cockpit of a 4x4 truck.

And it was on that stretch of road, heading between the bridge of Orkey to Tyndrum.

And you saw a hand lifting up a can of tenants, shouting cheers and laughing.

And I remember myself and my colleague that were looking at the phones, we couldn't believe what we were seeing

in front of us.

This is a joke to them. Quite sickening, to be honest with you.

There was also text messages and social media comments that tended to suggest other people knew more about the circumstances

than they were telling us.

One person said, I think about this all the time. I'm relatively local and we've known who did it for

ages.

They were drunk driving, hit Tony and buried his body on their property.

Someone tipped off the police, hence them searching and finding the body.

So it suggests that there was a lot of local knowledge.

Whilst all of this was ongoing, the relationship between Caroline and Sandy continued.

I think Caroline thought that she had to try and get more evidence for us.

As part of that, she would re-engage with Sandy.

She was so involved with wanting to help.

Obviously, first and foremost, we were just really concerned about her and her safety.

But she supplied us with her phone and supplied us with recordings which were entered as part of the evidence.

She talks at one point and Robert definitely told her that when they got out of the car, there was

a moan coming from the body and he was obviously still alive.

That then tied in with the information we received from the expert pathologist.

It was quite upsetting pathology results because there probably could have been a period of up to half an hour

for which he would have been alive after the point of impact.

The last thing you want to think is that that was somebody's last half hour.

He would have known he was dying and he would have known he was in the middle of nowhere and

he would have known there wasn't help coming.

And that's really sad.

At the point in time when they have realised that he is at the side of the road and is

still alive, a reasonable person would be making a decision to get somebody help.

To see if he had just phoned 999 and held his hand and told him it was going to be

okay in that last half hour, well, you know, that's what most people would do.

Tony may have died anyway, but they had decided he was definitely going to die and this was crucial in

determining what charges would be relevant.

The first question for the prosecution service is whether a crime has been committed.

Now when human remains are found in a remote area, buried in a peat bog, that obviously gives rise to

the likelihood that a criminal act has been committed.

The next challenge was to decide what the nature of that crime was.

Murder in Scotland can be committed in one of two ways, one with a wicked intention to kill.

The person that shoots someone else dead without any justification would be guilty of murder and there's no difficulty with

that.

Equally, if the attacker demonstrates such wicked recklessness as to demonstrate that he does not care whether the victim lives

or dies, then that can amount to murder too.

Robert and Sandy did not set out to kill Tony Parsons.

But when they've struck him with a vehicle, if the evidence suggests he was still alive at that point, they

can look at the state of Tony at that point in time and maybe reach the conclusion in their mind,

it's unlikely he'll survive.

But if you're not medically qualified, how can you make that decision?

This was not straightforward. If Mr. Parsons was killed instantly, then the charge would probably have simply been causing death

by dangerous driving because there's no suggestion that the accused set out to kill Mr. Parsons.

The difference with this case was that knowing he was alive after the collision, they decided not to recruit help

for him.

They have formed a plan in their mind to put him into the ground and conceal this fact forever. It's

a sliding doors moment and that's where the murderous intent comes in.

It seemed to me that an argument could be made out for murder.

You're not bound to answer, but if you do, your answers will be recorded and may be noted and may

be used in evidence. Do you understand?

I do, yes.

The time is 15.08 hours on Tuesday 1st December 2021.

At this time we're going to interview room number 4 at London Road Police Office.

Yep.

Can you confirm your name?

It's Alexander Gardner McKaylor.

Your age?

It's 29.

Can I ask you your name please?

Yeah, Robert McKaylor.

And your age, please Robert.

This is 11 months down the line from the first arrest.

On this occasion the two twins were arrested that morning for murder.

When we first spoke to them we had a lot more limited information, but much further down the line we

obviously had a full case built against them.

So it was to bring them in and put all the evidence that we had to them to see if

they would provide us with what had happened in their own words

or if they would tell us how they could live so long without telling anyone what Tony was.

You're now going to be asked questions about your involvement in the murder of Anthony Parsons in attempting to defeat

the course of justice.

You're not bound to answer, but if you do, your answers will be recorded and may be noted and may

be used in evidence.

Do you understand?

I do, yes.

Okay.

They probably both spent those 11 months wondering when we're coming back.

And I think there maybe was a little bit of thinking they'll maybe never charge us with us or they'll

never prove it happened.

I think by the time they come to these interviews 11 months later they're probably a lot more worried about

what's going to be presented to them

and Sandy certainly doesn't look as polished. He looks like a man that's had a really tough 11 months.

He doesn't have the same confidence.

He's got the crossed arms, hands right in close to, a torso on his chest and you can tell he's

really, really uncomfortable here,

which is different from how he was before.

You know who that is?

Just look at that picture and think what you did to him.

He's family.

Can you see the photo?

Mm-hmm.

Can you see the man?

The man that's got a family, that's got a wife, that's got kids.

It's not just a photo, it was a person that had that life.

Of course.

But your actions, albeit if you had been knocked off a bike, your actions could have kept that man alive

and you chose not to.

Because your need was greater than his.

And that family behind that picture have waited three years to get an answer.

Over three years, they're now nearly on four years to get an answer to what happened to their dad.

I understand that.

Do you?

Mm-hmm.

What's your understanding of that?

I don't know.

Do you genuinely have no remorse that you've killed a man in bed and leaving his family without any idea

where he was for three years?

No, come on.

I don't think at any point you have an understanding of that.

I think you just see a picture on there and you don't see anything behind it.

There's nothing else inside the person you are.

Are they correct?

No problem.

One of the things from Robert's interview is the work we go into round about the truck.

I think there's almost like that belief where people don't think you're going to quite dig as much as you

do dig.

Did Robert speak?

No, he didn't.

He never gave us anything significant and neither did Sandy, to be honest with you.

The only real reaction from Sandy during the interview was when the recordings were played.

The recordings that we had retrieved from Caroline Muirhead.

We seized our laptop, which was later examined.

We won the laptop with several recordings, including a conversation between you and her

in the morning of the 24th of February 2021.

So that's going to be one of the hotel clubs out here.

In all conversations, no ones do you deny being responsible.

Why not if you don't listen?

No problem.

You state it was either in my life or his. What did you mean by that?

It doesn't sound like you, to be honest. It sounds like it's been an escort.

It's enhanced.

He wasn't happy to accept that it was him.

It's silly on me that's had that conversation.

The enhancement's went to forensic law. It's all been checked.

I can't explain it, sorry.

To actually hear a recorded conversation, that's probably why he's reacted to that at that point,

when it's actually been put in front of him and he knows it's real.

We continue, fucking stupid cunt, shouldn't have been there.

Zero remorse for Mr. Parsons or his family.

Have you no regrets about what we've done?

Knock on it.

When you've been immersed in an inquiry like that for 11 months, when you reach the stage

whereby you know you're going to get it over the line and you're going to get a conclusion

to your investigation, there's a sense of satisfaction.

Terminating the interview with Alexander McCaylor within one demo police station.

From the 11 months between first interview and second interview, Robert and Sandy were very

much out in the community, still living lives. But from this date, we're pretty confident

that they've been demanded.

Okay, the time is now 18.55. Well, it's now concluding the interview with Robert McCaylor.

Ultimately, that's what you've spent a year working on. That's what the long nights or the time away

for your family is all about, just trying to get to that point. So it's a really, really satisfying moment.

It's probably one of the best parts of the job, when you're able to charge somebody with a serious crime.

Both were charged with murder and attempting to defeat the ends of justice in terms of

disposing of the body afterwards in the manner in which they did.

Once McCaylor twins had been charged with murder, the family of Tony Parsons have to be advised

that opens a lot of questions and thoughts.

It's strange to think murder and being told that someone's being charged with murder of my dad

because we don't know how, what happened.

They're thinking, if it's murder, it must be deliberate. They must have deliberately killed him.

So have they deliberately ran him off the road? Has there been a fight or disturbance beforehand?

We were asking all the questions and still getting told, no, it's an ongoing investigation.

Which I totally understand, totally get. But again, it fills your head with even more scenarios.

I was asked to represent the interests of Alexander Sandy McKellar.

I saw him in prison where he had been remanded at that stage.

I thought it would resolve by way perhaps of a plea causing death by dangerous driving

and also a very serious attempt to prevent the course of justice.

Because the body had been effectively hidden for a period of around about three years.

The Crown had made a decision that they were going to indict both brothers for murder.

It wasn't an obvious murder to me.

The Crown case was that their actings were wickedly reckless and therefore they were guilty of murder.

On that occasion, the first accused offered to plead guilty to causing death by dangerous driving.

There was no dispute about the fact that Sandy was the driver.

And so that was submitted. The Crown did not indicate they were going to accept that.

I rejected that plea. I did not think that that was adequate in the whole circumstances of the case.

The trial was actually set at the High Court in Glasgow.

It's obviously the highest court in the land.

It's a very significant high profile case.

There's a lot of media interest.

And that was obviously increasing as the trial was approaching

when all the intricacies of the story would have come out.

It's difficult to imagine the agony that the family went through

in not knowing where Mr. Parsons was and what happened to him.

That just compounded as time went on.

My task is to present the evidence openly and fairly,

but the jury will be told that sympathy plays no part in this

and neither does morals because it's a court of law and not a court of morals.

When the McKellar brothers first came up into the dock and they took their seat,

I watched their every move.

I wanted to know whether or not they were going to look at us.

They didn't.

Stern kept looking straight at the head.

And all I wanted to do was to say to them,

why?

As a family, we've had nothing from them.

When you've done that, the impact that that has had, the ripple effect of that night,

has impacted me, my sister, my mum, my children, you know, my dad's friends.

There was a group of us went through to the trial and we sat not far,

two or three rows behind them and we were watching them.

They came in all clean shaven, wearing suits, trying to look respectable and everything else.

But you could tell it was pure arrogance.

I knew I couldn't approach them.

But I just wanted to see them react.

I wanted to know what was going through their mind.

The evidence was that Mr. Parsons was alive after the collision and that the accused knew that.

But it was not a straightforward case by any means and it would be difficult to present to the jury.

Call the Diet. His Majesty's advocate against Alexander McKaylor and Robert McKaylor, please be seated.

I have a deputy.

Thank you, my lord.

I regret that I move that the case be adjourned until tomorrow morning.

Very well, thank you.

The Crown were having difficulties in citing Caroline to appear for the trial.

Caroline was the key to this in terms of the evidence that she had gathered.

through the course of her relationship with Sandy and the manner in which she had been assisting the police investigation.

So there was a bit of anxiety as to how things would go at the trial in relation to Caroline

providing her evidence.

The second day is the day when the jury turns up and actually are put into the jury box and

so on.

Caroline had been cited to attend and she hadn't turned up.

The trial was underway and I actually got a phone call from the brother's father to say, Caroline's here, she's

on the estate.

I said, what do you mean she's on the estate? I knew that that was the day that she had

to go to court to give evidence.

To pin your murder charge on that particular witness was a wee bit of a surprise to me, I think.

They last saw her heading up into the valley towards Loch Lyon.

I let my supervisors know immediately. You'd better phone the Crown. Caroline is nowhere near Glasgow High Court.

She was effectively missing and clearly everybody was concerned about what had happened to her, where she was.

It just so happened that one of the gamekeepers and an officer were going up this side of the law

and Caroline was found.

In these circumstances, I invite his Lordship to adjourn until tomorrow morning.

Well in the whole circumstances, I'm inclined to grant the motion.

We'll adjourn until 10 o'clock tomorrow morning and we will assess the situation at that point.

She was clearly struggling to deal with the circumstances on that particular day.

This case has been different. Every single hour of every single day I've worked on it.

Right to the end and during the trial, it was a pretty unique set of circumstances.

We thought the two of them were going to be charged with murder.

But I think it was day three.

I just felt that something weren't right here.

You know, I just had that feeling.

I've got depured.

Thank you my Lord.

My Lord, I'm grateful for the extra time afforded today.

And I can advise that there has been a development in the case.

And I would propose to amend the indictment.

Recognising that approving the murder charge was not going to be straightforward,

it did seem to me that a charge of culpable homicide would be sufficient in the circumstances of this case.

My Lord, in relation to charge number one in line 11,

to delete the word murder and substitute the word kill.

No, Mr McConaughey.

Yes, ma'am. I have instructions to tender a plea of guilty to charge one,

which is, as your Lordship is aware, now a charge of culpable homicide.

And that was then accepted with the result that the case did not go to a jury as a trial,

but was a guilty plea.

Okay, my Lord, those pleas are acceptable to the Crown.

The difference between a conviction for murder and a conviction for culpable homicide is huge.

And also the fact that Sandy's brother would no longer be on the homicide charge.

They were two very important factors.

It probably wasn't a particularly difficult decision for Sandy to make,

even although he knew the outcome would be he would get a significant custodial sentence.

A change of plea by the accused is not an unusual thing.

We do strive to try and avoid that happening at the trial.

It's unfortunate that it happens at that late stage, but it does happen.

Well, I can see why it happened, because if you went for murder and you couldn't prove it,

then there's a chance they would get enough.

Don't make it right.

Don't make it right.

When we found out that the McKellars had made a plea.

That didn't sit well with me, my initial thought was,

they're going to go down, and they're taking the truth with them.

So by playing not only have they robbed me of my father, but they've robbed me of knowing the truth.

When I move for sentence, his lordship will see that the previous convictions for Alexander

McKellar are dangerous driving, driving with an excess of alcohol, and in 2012 he was convicted

of careless driving.

My lord, I would propose that the Crown and Defence prepare an agreed narrative because

the case is fairly complex and there's quite a bit to say.

There would be insufficient time to conclude that today.

Thank you very much.

Lord!

When they get out of jail, they're going to go back to life as if nothing's happened.

They're going to get on with it, they're going to enjoy themselves.

I can't do that.

I can't do that because Tony's not here.

They're not the one that I left with a life sentence.

I am.

Because that's what they've done.

My lord, this case commenced as a missing person inquiry before evolving into an investigation.

Around July 2017, Anthony Parsons decided to engage in a cycle from Fort William to his

home address in Tilakoutri.

His wife, Margaret Parsons, received text messages from his mobile asking how she was and confirming

that he had arrived in Fort William.

This was the last contact she had with her husband.

Around 2300 hours, Mr Parsons attended at the Bridge of Orkey Hotel.

He was wet due to the adverse weather.

It was suggested to him that he should stay the night in the hotel.

However, after having a coffee, he left the hotel to continue his cycle and travelled south

on his intended route.

You could see him shaking his head with what was being said.

I know, man.

It was really, really difficult to watch that.

My lord, so far as the accused are concerned, the accused, Alexander McKellar, after consuming

alcohol, drove with Robert McKellar as a passenger on a journey from the Bridge of Orkey Hotel to

their home on the Orkey Estate a few miles away.

During the journey, in adverse weather conditions, at night and at speed, the vehicle collided

with Anthony Parsons, who was, at the time, riding his bicycle.

After seriously injuring Anthony Parsons, Alexander McKellar ascertained that Mr Parsons was still

alive.

He did not call the emergency services, thereby preventing any prospect of Mr Parsons receiving

medical treatment.

a patient.

He will have been in massive amounts of pain.

So then to not seek any form of medical treatment from that is just 100% inhumane.

It was horrible to hear what they had done.

And I'm not talking about the fact that they knocked him off his bike with the car.

It's what they did after.

Without immediate medical assistance, he would have been unlikely to survive longer than 20

to 30 minutes.

Police inquiry confirmed that the quickest emergency medical response would have taken approximately

one hour if any assistance had been sought.

The outcome of what would have happened, how long it would have taken an ambulance to get

there, is irrelevant.

If you know that you've hit somebody, you can see that they are still alive.

Any basic human instinct says you need to try and get help.

They just wanted to protect themselves.

They could have phoned for somebody.

They could have phoned an ambulance.

They could have phoned the police.

They could have even done it anonymously, but they didn't.

The two accused left the scene in the vehicle and returned in a different vehicle, collected

Mr Parson's body and bicycle and transported him to the Auch Estate whereby they left him overnight.

After attending with a shooting party the next day, the body was taken to a peaty area

on the estate, a grave was dug and the body placed in it and covered.

I do remember the full story being read out in court line by line and it really was, it

was a real shock.

What they did was callous.

That's not actions of a drunken man, not the day after.

This is the actions of somebody who's trying to cover up a crime.

To willingly go down a course of action whereby you are letting somebody die, that to me is

murder.

And our opinion will always be the same.

They have murdered my dad and they have taken him away from us.

Such was the location that if Alexander McKellar had not disclosed where the grave was, the

remains are unlikely to have ever been found.

And my lord, there is a drive-through on the estate.

I am not going to pay all of it but I will demonstrate the deposition area so his lordship

will get an idea of how remote this area is.

They took Tony, they buried him.

They left me for three and a half years and my kids and grown kids.

Not knowing where Tony was.

And this is the deposition site just to the right of the roadway.

The peat bog area is utilised by state employees, including the accused Robert and Alexander

McKellar, to routinely dispose of animal carcasses.

This was evident on initial observation by police officers due to openly visible animal bones.

Between the 13th and 14th of January 2021, the body of Mr Parsons was exposed and with great

care recovered from within the grave.

How on earth can anybody, with any iota of goodness in them, how could they do that?

How on earth could they live without knowing a poor Tony was buried, so probably not very

far from the front door?

Anthony Parsons was 63 at the time of his death.

He was a much-loved husband, father, brother, grandfather and friend.

He had very close community ties.

My lord, those are the submissions for the crown.

Robert McKellar and Alexander McKellar, please stand.

You will next appear before me for the matter of sentence.

You will continue to be detained.

That's all.

There's been no remorse.

Absolutely nothing from them at all.

To be honest, I hate the both of them.

I really do.

I'm still angry.

I'm sorry.

It won't go away.

I see.

Oh, my God.

Call the diet adjourned out for sentence.

His Majesty's advocate against Alexander McKellar and Robert Keller.

Please be seated, thank you.

Mr McCorrekey.

On board.

Mr McKellar is well aware of the family's views

and knows and understands that there is no apology

which he can tender,

which will ever be acceptable to them.

But nonetheless, he wishes me on his behalf

to indicate that he deeply regrets the trauma

that he put the family through.

On the night of the 29th of September 2017,

it is fully accepted by him

he ought not to have been driving.

By his plea, he accepts that whilst catastrophically injured,

Mr Parsons was alive at the time.

Mr McKellar accepts he did not call for assistance.

The only explanation which he offers

and the only explanation which perhaps makes sense

is simply fear and panic.

Fear for himself and panic for the situation he found himself in.

His conduct thereafter became something of a runaway train.

Using his words, he says he was too much of a coward to come clean.

He sought solace in alcohol and much more significant abuse of cocaine.

Mr McKellar found what he had done more and more difficult to live with.

And on two separate occasions,

he came close to ending his own life.

On one occasion, he drove to a remote part of the estate

and had a loaded rifle in his mouth

but didn't pull the trigger.

In 2020, when he met Caroline

and she went to the police,

he fully accepts that ultimately

she made the right decision in doing so.

The finding of Mr Parsons' body

and the fact that these proceedings are now coming to an end

to some extent

has meant that there is a very significant weight

being lifted from him.

He would do anything he could

to have the chance to alter the decision he took

on the 29th of September

but he can't rewind the clock.

If you have done something

and you're not a psychopath,

which I've got no reason to believe that they're psychopaths,

then it is always going to play in your mind.

And I think the older you get,

the more you realise

that you have to face up to

the terrible things that you may or may not have done in life.

There must have been a sense of relief

that, right, OK, this is happening.

They were going to have to face the consequences

of what happened that night.

I've never seen any remorse from Sandy.

If other people have got a sense that he was remorseful,

then fair enough, but it's not anything I ever witnessed.

During police interactions with Robert,

I didn't really get any real sense of remorse from him either.

Robert McKellar became involved out of a misplaced sense of loyalty to his brother.

He made a very significant error of judgment to support his brother

at a point in his life

where he already feared that his family was breaking up.

However, that decision having been made,

he accepts that he then participated fully

in what was clearly a sustained and determined effort

to conceal the truth of his brother's crime.

And in so doing, he undoubtedly caused

Mr. Parsons' family and friends

immeasurable pain and suffering.

It really just seemed that they didn't treat Tony Parsons any differently

to how they dealt with the carcasses of the animals they killed

when they were in their hunting parties.

In my submission, it is fair to say that Robert McKellar

bitterly regrets his callous and cowardly actions.

He would like the opportunity to communicate directly with Mr. Parsons' family

in order to apologise for his actions.

But he too is aware of and respects the views of Mr. Parsons' family.

These two individuals have sat in a courtroom

listening to all this, listening to all this evidence.

And are you only sorry because you've been caught?

I don't know.

I really don't know.

Mr. McKellar appreciates the awfulness of prison.

He is witness to it every day

and is kept awake most nights by prisoners in distress,

screaming and banging on the walls.

But he understands and accepts why he is in prison.

That's not comfort for the family of the victim,

or his friends.

It is either.

It's not comfort for any of us.

Very well.

Alexander McKellar and Robert McKellar, please stand.

You have pleaded guilty to grave and serious crimes.

I have no doubt that Mr. Parsons' family

have been deeply affected by this.

I have read and noted the terms of three victim impact statements

made by members of his family.

Their terms clearly indicate the profound, devastating,

and continuing impact,

the lasting effect of which may be incalculable.

Nothing I can say or do can compensate for their loss,

and I suspect that no sentence would ever be regarded

as sufficient in their eyes.

Alexander McKellar, I will impose on you a single sentence

of imprisonment of 12 years.

Robert McKellar, the sentence which I now impose on you

is one of a period of imprisonment of five years and three months.

That is all.

I guess on reflection for me, that is a fair result.

I've still been convicted of serious and significant crimes.

We've provided answers to the family of Tony

and we've managed to bring justice.

A drink driver who hit and killed a cyclist

has been sentenced to 12 years in prison.

So, have we achieved our objective

in relation to this investigation? Absolutely.

This is an extraordinary, heartbreaking tale.

Twin brothers Alexander and Robert McKellar sobbed

as they were sentenced at Glasgow High Court this morning.

For me, it had to be murder.

I absolutely felt that the whole story

should have been told in court in front of the jury

because if they heard the whole thing,

then there's no way those guys would have got away with it.

Which I believe they did.

With the court, the sentences they got,

they definitely got away with it.

Pain and grief seemed to show on the faces of Tony Parson's family

as they left court.

You never thought for one moment that it would be six years until we got justice.

Nobody can try and fathom out how long that six years was.

How hard, how traumatising it is.

I don't have any hatred towards these individuals.

Because of my work experience, I've seen these things happen in other scenarios.

And I'm fully aware they have family as well

that will be going through stresses and things like that.

I just wish it had never happened.

I love Tony because he...

He was kind.

He made me happy.

He's looked after me all these years.

And I'm lost.

Without Tony.

I am making new memories with my grandkids, my son and my daughter.

But it still hurts that Tony's not here to see it.

It's getting to the stage where I can see things finally coming to a close.

I can see us finally starting to move on.

Can't wait for the day where we do actually get together as a family and go,

We've done him proud.

We brought him home.

And that's where he should be.

Well, I can't wait for twoЛs.

I want to explain to you all the stuff.

I'm proud of you, across the looseadan Corps.