A NINE-year-old girl was frightened by a scream in the night just hours before the body of Elaine Doyle was found more than 27 years ago, a murder trial has heard.
Emma Molloy, now aged 36 and a housing warden, told the High Court in Edinburgh she was afraid to look out of her window after hearing the noise. Ms Molloy said at the time, in June 1986, she lived in Robertson Street, just round the corner from Ms Doyle's Greenock home.
Her mother worked night shifts at National Semiconductors on the Larkfield Industrial Estate and cousin Avril Clark was babysitting.
Ms Molloy, a mother-of-two, said she described what happened on June 3, 1986 to police investigating Ms Doyle's murder.
The trial heard how she told them she had been trying to listen to her mother's radio alarm just after midnight but switched it off because it was only buzzing. "I then heard a loud scream coming from outside. It sounded like a woman," she said in a statement. "I then heard a loud bang outside. I was frightened and hid under the blankets for about five minutes. I then went through to see Avril. I was crying."
Questioned by defence QC Donald Findlay, Ms Molloy agreed that ten years later she again described the night to police, but only told them about hearing the bang. The scream seemed to have been forgotten.
Admin assistant Avril Clark, 44, said that Sunday she and her cousin had watched a film "California Suite" on television. With the help of TV listings from 1986 the trial heard that the film had finished just before 12.40am on June 2. Minutes later, after she had gone to bed, Ms Molloy came into the room and told what she had heard: "I dismissed it. I just thought it was a noise she had heard on the radio."
John Docherty, 49, of Hunters' Quay, Holiday Village, Dunoon, denies murder.
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