A real-life mystery disappearance, a suspected secret guarded for 16 years and a murder trial in search of answers comes to our TV screens this week.
Two-part documentary Murder Trial: The Disappearance of Margaret Fleming starts this week, having had unprecedented access to the investigation and subsequent trial of co-accused Edward Cairney and Avril Jones.
Filmed by BAFTA Scotland award-winning director Matt Pinder, this ground-breaking documentary takes the audience into the very centre of the trial at Glasgow’s High Court and beyond as carers Cairney and Jones face trial for the murder of 35-year-old Margaret Fleming.
Offering a compelling insight into the work of the police and prosecutors in bringing the two suspects to trial, the documentary also shines a light on the work of the defence teams representing the two accused of Margaret’s murder.
In 2016, an application for a Personal Independence Payment raised suspicions. When authorities couldn’t contact the applicant, the police were called and it was discovered that a 35-year-old woman had seemingly vanished from a village on the west coast of Scotland.
Margaret Fleming was a vulnerable adult understood by authorities to be in the full-time care of Cairney and Jones, living in a remote coastal property in the village of Inverkip. But when police started questioning Margaret’s friends and family, they were told no one had seen her since 1999.
Margaret Fleming
In the 2019 murder trial that unfolds, Cairney and Jones stand accused of killing her, disposing of her body and claiming benefits in her name for 16 years.
With remarkable in-court access to an unfolding trial that gripped Scotland, Murder Trial: The Disappearance of Margaret Fleming tells the story of a prosecution without a body and a community without answers.
Filmed both inside and outside of the courtroom, this case will take viewers deep into the inner workings of Scotland’s justice system, as a small community coming to terms with the prospect of a potentially brutal and calculated crime occurring unnoticed in its midst.
With the first episode being shown on BBC Scotland on Tuesday and BBC Two on Tuesday, and the second part the following day, the second episode shines a light on the trial that gripped a nation, taking viewers deep into the inner workings of Scotland’s justice system.
The episode begins with the testimony of Jean McSherry – former partner of Margaret’s father, Derick Fleming – who takes the stand in Glasgow’s High Court. Jean reveals to Prosecutor Iain McSporran QC that she lost touch with Margaret when the accused Edward Cairney and Avril Jones became her carers: ‘When Eddie and Avril had her, I got told that Margaret didn’t want to speak to me or see me. I should’ve went to social workers to get them to investigate Eddie and Avril. I beat myself up for that. I could’ve done something and I never.’
This episode also features Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Superintendent Paul Livingstone, who revisits Margaret’s eerily derelict home in Seacroft, Inverkip. There is also dramatic testimony from Inverkip local, Paul Neeson, as well as Margaret’s former school teacher, Jacqueline Cahill.
CCTV footage of the arrest of Edward Cairney and Avril Jones
As the Crown’s case closes, Edward Cairney takes the stand to give evidence. He claims: ‘I’m incapable of harming a kid or a lady, I can’t do that.’
However, during cross-examining by Iain McSporran QC, when inconsistencies in his story are drawn out, Cairney explodes: ‘I can’t sit here and let you put words into my mouth, I know my life depends on it. There is nothing sinister in anything we’ve done.’
As closing speeches are delivered by the prosecution and defence – and the jury retire to consider the charges – Murder Trial: The Disappearance of Margaret Fleming concludes with Cairney and Jones discovering their fate on verdict day.
Murder Trial: The Disappearance of Margaret Fleming is a Firecrest Films production for BBC Scotland and BBC Two.
Part one will be shown on Tuesday 7 January, on BBC Scotland, from 10-11pm/Wednesday 8 January, BBC Two, 9-10pm, with part two on Wednesday, 8 January, on BBC Scotland, 10-11pm/Thursday 9 January, BBC Two, 9-10pm.
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