Murderer Andrew Hunter has been branded an “evil, cold monster” after inflicting even more suffering on his dead wife’s family 35 years ago.
A disgraced Carnoustie social worker made them relive the horrific details of Lynda’s killing as he appealed his murder conviction.
Lynda’s father spoke of Hunter as the man the family hated above all else.
Small miracle.
Hunter strangled Lynda to death using the leash of her dog Shep after the pair had argued in the car on the way to Lynda’s mother’s house in Glenrothes.
Lynda’s body lay among trees in Melville Lower Wood, Fife, for six months until it was found in February 1988.
At the time, he played the role of grieving husband and continued to interact with the family, apparently sharing their hope that he would somehow turn up.
Hunter appealed the conviction
Hunter’s web of deceit unraveled and, after the jury returned a majority verdict, he was jailed for life in August 1988 at the High Court in Dundee.
Hunter claimed he was the victim of a miscarriage of justice.
The reason for the appeal was the insufficient evidence led by the prosecution and the alleged misconduct of the jury by Lord Brand.
The appeal in June 1989 was to last two days.
After nearly a year in prison, Hunter had aged considerably, gained weight, and his close-cropped hair was graying and thinning.
Lord Emslie, sitting with Lord Cowie and Lord Clyde, took just minutes to dismiss two and a half hours of arguments from 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 murder, it was their responsibility to prove he did.
Mr Daiches also argued that the conviction should be overturned because Lord Brand misdirected the jury in part of his charge which dealt with Hunter’s statements when questioned by police about his wife’s disappearance.
Hunter argued in court that these statements were in no way an admission of guilt, but rather an expression of his fear that the police investigation would expose his sex life, with possible damaging consequences for his family.
Mr Daiches argued that he should have drawn Hunter’s explanation to the jury’s attention immediately after Lord Brand mentioned these statements.
Hunter’s web of lies was thrown away
“We have no hesitation in concluding that the evidence fully justified the jury in returning the verdict it did,” Lord Emslie said.
“The case was based on circumstantial evidence.
“In our judgment, this was not a narrow case.
“We are certainly satisfied that the evidence before the jury was not only sufficient, but sufficient and telling of appellant’s guilt.”
As for the alleged misdirection of the jury, Lord Emslie said they found the trial judge had followed a “perfectly legitimate course” during his speech.
Lord Brand pointed out to the jurors that if they accepted the accused as a “credible witness” then they would have to have reasonable doubts about the Crown’s case.
When Hunter died untimely in prison, many dark secrets passed with him.” Former journalist and author Alexander McGregor.
The appeal judges were also unconvinced by Mr Daiches’ claim that Lord Brand’s address showed “unfair bias” against the Crown.
Hunter winked at supporters sitting on public benches as he was led from the dock to serve out the remainder of his life sentence.
The family said Hunter was motivated by greed
Lynda’s parents welcomed the dismissal of the appeal from their home in Glenrothes.
Dorothy Cairns said: “As you can imagine we are delighted with the result.
“That’s what we expected, but the sad thing is that they’re not going to give my daughter back.
“He’s just an evil, cold monster, and I feel that life should mean life.
She said he should never get out.
“He spent Christmas with us when he knew how sad we were,” she said.
“He knew that I had been searching 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 she died he tried to get her to increase her insurance to £100,000.
“He was trying to increase his wages, that’s all,” he said.
The basic flaw was the killer’s destruction
Former Courier chief reporter Alexander McGregor wrote extensively about Hunter in his bestselling book The Law Killers.
He said it was ironic that a man who had gone to such lengths to cover his tracks was convicted largely because of a basic mistake, as one of the appeals court judges pointed out.
“After killing his pregnant wife Lynda and hiding her body in a Fife forest, Hunter later drove through the night to abandon his car in Manchester as part of a carefully laid out red herring trail,” Alexander said.
“It was just one of the cunning moves he made to create an alibi.
“After disposing of Lynda’s corpse, he released the family dog, Shep, who 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 pet was never allowed to leave the house.
“After returning home, Hunter threw the collar in the corner of the family’s living room, only to be later found by the police.”
The proof was the putting on of the collar
The prosecution latched onto this seemingly random fact and used it to prove that Hunter must have been in the car with Lynda when she and Shep disappeared.
He said: “Although most of those involved in the case had little doubt of Hunter’s guilt, the amount of evidence needed to convict him was not there.
“It secured the putting on of the dog collar.
“At a brief Court of Appeal hearing, when Hunter’s dismissal applications were quickly rejected, Lord Cowie pointed out that there were possible alternative explanations for other major elements of the Crown’s case.”
“But there was nothing to explain the presence of the collar in Hunter’s house.
“It must have been Hunter who put it there, positively linking him to Lynda’s fateful journey.
“In the end, it was the error that convicted him and caused his appeal to be dismissed without reason.”
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.
“The judge described him as a man of extraordinary depravity,” he said.
“It was a valid point.
“When Hunter died untimely in prison, many dark secrets went with him.
Alexander said Hunter’s death denied Lynda’s family a sense of real justice for them and their late daughter.
“In a way it was the final insult after a very stressful time for her parents and other family members,” he said.
“They conducted themselves with great dignity and bravery throughout, and few would argue that they deserve Hunter to pay the full price for his heinous actions.”