TWO killers have lost a wide-ranging bid to recover information about a police informant they were convicted of murdering.

Colin Coats and Philip Wade were jailed for life after they were found guilty of the abduction, torture and murder of businesswoman 27-year-old Lynda Spence.

The pair are planning to appeal their convictions and ahead of the legal challenge they raised proceedings seeking access to documents held by the police.

They related to her involvement and recruitment by the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency as a Covert Human Intelligence Source and to information shared over her knowledge of criminal activity. The trial judge, Lord Pentland, said the murder was "truly monstrous".