AN independent inquiry set up to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of Margaret Fleming is to meet for the first time next month.
The vulnerable woman vanished in December 1999 when she was 19 but police were not alerted until October 2016. Edward Cairney, 77, and Avril Jones, 59, her supposed carers, were arrested a year later and in July last year were convicted of her murder.
Jurors found the couple murdered Margaret by unknown means between December 18 1999 and January 5 2000 at their home in Seacroft, Inverkip, Inverclyde – or elsewhere in Scotland – and then tried to cover up the crime for almost 18 years. Prosecutors said she suffered a “cruel death”.
Cairney, 77, and 59-year-old Jones killed their victim after having been asked to look after her by her father Derek, who was a lawyer, shortly before he died in October 1995.
The trial heard a string of bizarre claims by Cairney and Jones as to what they claimed subsequently happened to Margaret. These included her becoming a “gangmaster”, leaving for England “with travellers” or setting herself up as a drug dealer. They were each sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 14 years.
READ MORE: Margaret Fleming: Carers convicted of murdering missing woman
READ MORE: Margaret Fleming: Carers jailed for murdering teenager who vanished in 1999
The Inverclyde Health and Social Care Partnership yesterday confirmed Professor Jean MacLellan has been appointed to head up a significant case review.
MacLellan, a social worker by background, is the director of Autism Network Scotland and has worked in a variety of local authority roles.
A Inverclyde Council spokesman said: “We have always been very clear that there will be a full independent inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Margaret Fleming’s tragic death. However, the legal process had to run its course first.
“We were advised by the procurator fiscal that the inquiry couldn’t start until the trial of Edward Cairney and Avril Jones, and any subsequent appeals, were complete. We have now appointed Professor Jean MacLellan OBE to head up the significant case review (SCR). The inquiry’s first planning meeting is scheduled for February.”
He added: “This will be a full, independent inquiry which will involve all the agencies which were involved with Margaret during her life. The final report will be published when it is complete. We expect that this will take some six months. A key area for the SCR team will be to uncover any lessons that are to be learned from the extensive cover up carried out by Edward Cairney and Avril Jones to hide their appalling treatment of Margaret, while she was in their care, and the murder that they subsequently committed.”
The body of Margaret, who had learning difficulties, has never been found.
Jones was also convicted of fraudulently claiming £182,000 in benefits by pretending Margaret – who would now have been 39 – was alive. As well as murder, the couple were convicted of perverting the course of justice. The crimes were uncovered after a change in benefits from the Disability Living Allowance the pair had received for Margaret to the new Personal Independence Payment, forcing them to fill in new claim forms.
SNP Inverclyde councillor Chris McEleny welcomed the inquiry. He said: “Margaret was failed by her carers and failed by those with a duty of care to ensure her protection. It’s vitally important that we now establish how this was allowed to happen and ensure that there are no similar cases out there.”
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