A MAN and woman who blamed each other for battering a man to death

with a hammer were yesterday jailed at the High Court in Glasgow for

burying the body.

Margaret Burt, 19, who was described as a ''vicious, sadistic, and

calculating liar'' said Mr James Cox, also 19, was bludgeoned to death

by her then boyfriend who had dug the grave two days before the killing.

A jury found a murder charge against John Barrie not proven. Barrie,

24, of Morris Crescent, Blantyre, was found guilty of destroying

evidence and burying the body.

Burt, of Rannoch Place, Irvine, had her plea of not guilty to

murdering Mr Cox accepted by the Crown. She admitted her part in helping

destroy evidence and getting rid of the body.

Lord Mayfield jailed Barrie for 18 months and sentenced Burt to 12

months' detention.

During the trial Burt gave evidence against Barrie, with whom she had

lived. She told Mr Ian Peebles QC, prosecuting, that Barrie said he was

going ''to get revenge'' because Mr Cox, of Morris Crescent, Blantyre,

had set fire to his car and broken into his home.

Burt said Barrie dug a grave in waste ground in Basket Road, East

Kilbride, and then invited Mr Cox to his home on December 17, 1991, for

a drink.

She said she was watching television in the living room while the two

men were in the kitchen and when she went to make coffee she found

Barrie with a hammer in his hand aiming a blow at Mr Cox's head and

pulling on a wire round the man's neck.

She said the place was covered in blood and Barrie threatened her that

she had to keep her mouth shut or she would be next.

She said he then forced her to take an end of a rolled carpet with Mr

Cox's body inside, hide it in the garden hut, and take it to the burial

site two nights later.

The court was told of a bizarre twist when the two were disposing of

the body and were confronted by two policemen who then charged Barrie

for disposing of rubbish, which he had claimed was old tiles and wood,

in an undesignated area.

Mr Cox's body lay for almost two years before it was found by a

tracker dog after Burt told police her account of what happened.

Barrie told his counsel, Mr Donald Findlay QC, that it was Burt who

smashed Mr Cox's skull with a heavy hammer after he had ''made a pass at

her''.

Barrie said he punched Mr Cox and hauled him away from Burt with a

piece of electric wire. He claimed that she later hit Mr Cox on the head

with a hammer. He had helped her to get rid of the body ''because I

loved her''.

Barrie agreed with his counsel that he was sorry he had lied to the

dead man's father about the whereabouts of his son and having made a

pretence of asking him several times for news of his missing son.

In his closing speech to the members of the jury, Mr Peebles asked

them to accept the evidence of Burt that Barrie was the killer.

Mr Findlay described Burt as a vicious, sadistic, and calculating liar

who had given an acting performance in the witness box.

Mr Ian Hamilton QC, for Burt, said the real relationship between

Barrie and Burt would probably never be known, but because Barrie had

been acquitted of the murder this raised no presumption of guilt on the

part of Burt.