Accused 'must reveal where body is'

Mar 20 2013

A man accused of murdering a missing financial adviser has been asked to tell her parents where her remains are.

Solicitor general Lesley Thomson QC, the prosecutor in the case, told Philip Wade, 42, to "look into your conscience" and highlighted the distress of Lynda Spence's mother and father, Patricia and James Spence.

Ms Spence, a 27-year-old financial adviser, has not been seen for around two years, since April 2011.

Prosecutors claim she was abducted, tortured and murdered by Wade and his co-accused, Colin Coats, 42 - charges which they both deny.

At the High Court in Glasgow, Ms Thomson said: "Do you remember Lynda Spence's parents coming here to give evidence? And you saw the distress and grief of Mrs Spence when she was giving evidence?" Wade replied: "Yes."

The solicitor general asked: "There are only two people who can tell Mrs Spence where her daughter's remains are, aren't there?" The witness said: "That's in your opinion."

Ms Thomson said: "What I'm going to ask you to do, Mr Wade, is to look into your conscience and tell them where Linda's remains are."

Earlier Wade told the court that a story which implicated him in Ms Spence's murder is "total fantasy".

The accounts were given by his two co-accused, Paul Smith, 47, and David Parker, 38, who were acquitted of murder after pleading guilty to a reduced charge of holding Ms Spence against her will and assaulting her.

They both gave evidence in which they said they were asked by Wade and Coats to detain Ms Spence at a flat in Meadowfoot Road, West Kilbride, Ayrshire, and the two accused men would visit every day to inflict violence on her.