Murderer Andrew Hunter has been branded an “evil, cold monster” after causing yet more agony to the family of his wife who died 35 years ago.
Carnoustie’s depraved social worker made them relive the chilling details of Lynda’s murder when he appealed against his manslaughter conviction.
Lynda’s father spoke of Hunter as a man the family hated above all else.
Little wonder.
Hunter had strangled Lynda to death using the lead of her pet dog Shep after the pair had argued in the car on the way to Lynda’s mother’s home in Glenrothes.
Lynda’s body remained among the trees in Melville Lower Wood, Fife, for six months, until it was found in February 1988.
At the time he played the grieving husband and continued to keep in touch with the family, apparently sharing their hope that she would somehow turn up.
Hunter filed an appeal after the conviction
Hunter’s fraud scheme was uncovered and he was jailed for life at the High Court in Dundee in August 1988 after a jury returned a majority verdict.
Hunter claimed he was the victim of a miscarriage of justice.
The grounds of appeal were the insufficient evidence led by the prosecution and the alleged misdirection of the jury by Lord Brand.
The appeal in June 1989 was expected to last two days.
After nearly a year in prison, Hunter had aged greatly, gaining weight and his close-cropped hair was graying and thinning.
Lord Emslie, sitting with Lord Cowie and Lord Clyde, took just minutes to reject two and a half hours of argument from defense barrister Lionel Daiches.
He said there was not enough evidence to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Mr Daiches said it was not enough for the Crown to say Hunter could have committed the murder, it was their job to prove he did.
Mr Daiches also claimed the sentence should be dropped because Lord Brand had misdirected the jury on the part of his charge which related to statements made by Hunter when questioned by police about his wife’s disappearance.
Hunter claimed in court that these statements were not an admission of guilt at all, but rather an expression of his concern that the police investigation would expose his sex life, with potentially damaging consequences for his family.
Mr Daiches argued that immediately after Lord Brand’s reference to these statements, he should have drawn the jury’s attention to Hunter’s explanation of them.
Hunter’s web of lies was thrown out
“We have concluded without hesitation that the evidence fully justified the jury in returning the verdict they did,” said Lord Emslie.
“The case was based on circumstantial evidence.
“In our judgment, this was not a close case.
“We are certainly satisfied that the evidence before the jury was not only sufficient, but ample and eloquent of appellant’s guilt.”
Turning to the alleged misdirection of the jury, Lord Emslie said they found the trial judge had followed “an entirely legitimate course” in his speech.
Lord Brand pointed out to the jurors that if they accepted the accused as a “credible witness” then they were bound to have a reasonable doubt on the Crown’s case.
When Hunter died prematurely in prison, many dark secrets came with him.” Former journalist and author Alexander McGregor.
The appellate judges were also unconvinced by Mr. Daiches that Lord Brand’s address had shown an “unfair prejudice” against the Crown.
Hunter winked at supporters sitting in public pews as he was led from the bench to serve out the remainder of a life sentence.
The family said Hunter was motivated by greed
Lynda’s parents welcomed the appeal rejection from their home in Glenrothes.
Dorothy Cairns said: “As you can imagine we are delighted with the result.
“It’s what we expected, but the sad part is that nothing brings my daughter back.
“He’s just an evil, cold monster and I think life should mean life.”
She said he should never go out.
“He spent Christmas with us when he knew how sad we were,” she said.
“He knew I had searched the woods where Lynda was found and that I might have come across her remains, but he did nothing.”
Lynda’s father Robert said Hunter was “full of greed”.
“A year before he died, he tried to get her to increase her insurance to £100,000.
“He was trying to raise his wages, that’s all,” he said.
The elementary mistake was the undoing of the murderer
Former Courier chief reporter Alexander McGregor has written extensively about Hunter in his best-selling book The Law Killers.
He said it was ironic that the man who went to such elaborate lengths to cover his tracks was convicted largely because of an elementary mistake, a fact highlighted by one of the appeals court judges.
“After murdering his pregnant wife Lynda and hiding her body in a Fife forest, Hunter later traveled through the night to abandon her car in Manchester as part of a carefully plotted red herring trail,” Alexander said.
“It was just one of the cunning steps he took to try to create an alibi.
“After disposing of Lynda’s body, he released the family dog Shep, who had accompanied Lynda on her supposed solo trip to visit her parents in Glenrothes.
“Before doing so, he removed the dog’s collar without which the beloved animal was never allowed to leave the house.
“After returning home, Hunter threw the collar in a corner of the family’s living room, only to be found later by police.”
Slipping the dog’s collar was proof required
The prosecution latched onto this seemingly random fact and used it to demonstrate that Hunter should have been in the car with Lynda when she and Shep disappeared.
He said: “Although most involved in this case had little doubt of Hunter’s guilt, there was not an abundance of evidence of the kind needed to be certain of a conviction.
“The slip of the dog’s collar gave it away.
“At the brief appeal court hearing, when Hunter’s pleas for acquittal were swiftly rejected, Lord Cowie pointed out that there were possible alternative explanations for other key planks of the Crown’s case.
“But there was nothing to explain the presence of the collar at Hunter’s house.
“It must have been Hunter placing it there, positively linking it to Lynda’s fateful journey.
“In the end, it was that mistake that doomed him and caused his appeal to be dismissed out of hand.”
Murderer Andrew Hunter took his secrets to the grave
Hunter died of a heart attack on 19 July 1993 in Perth Prison.
Alexander is convinced that the full extent of Hunter’s nefarious activities will never be known.
“He was described by the sentencing judge as a man of extraordinary promiscuity,” he said.
“It was an appropriate comment.
“When Hunter died prematurely in prison, many dark secrets came with him.”
Alexander said Hunter’s death denied Lynda’s family the feeling that they and their late daughter had received real justice for her.
“In a way, it was the final insult after a very distressing time for her parents and other family members,” he said.
“Throughout, they conducted themselves with great dignity and courage and few would argue that they deserved to see Hunter pay the full price for his despicable actions.”