A man who murdered a grandmother and concealed her body under the floorboards of his flat for more than four years was jailed for life today.
Robert Kelly, 32, was told at the High Court in Glasgow that he must serve at least 15 years behind bars before being allowed to apply for parole.
Kelly pleaded guilty in May this year to murdering money collector Agnes "Nessa" Mechan, 64, by strangling her in Jamieson Street, Glasgow, on August 30, 2002.
He also admitted robbing her of a handbag and £340 cash in the same incident.
Mrs Mechan disappeared after leaving to visit clients in the Govanhill area of Glasgow at 6.30pm on August 30, 2002.
When she went to the flat of Kelly, one of her customers, he attacked her.
He strangled her then dumped her body under the floorboards and covered it with soil.
The court heard that on the day before the murder Kelly told his partner that he was going to mug Mrs Mechan.
Then on the day of the murder Kelly told his partner that he was going to kill Mrs Mechan and showed her the cord he would use to strangle her with.
He then described how he was going to bury the body under the floorboards.
Later that evening he told his partner: "I did it."
Mrs Mechan's body was eventually found in January this year after his partner told a friend who informed the police.
Forensic officers sealed off Mr Kelly's flat in Jamieson Street, and uncovered Mrs Mechan's body on January 24, 2007.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article