THE man a murder accused claims could have been behind his wife's alleged killing referred to the missing woman in a secretly recorded conversation, a trial heard.
Hector Dick, 56, was taped, without his knowledge, talking to another man nine months after Arlene Fraser vanished.
During the conversation he referred to Mrs Fraser as a "silly b******", the High Court in Edinburgh heard.
Mr Dick, a farmer from Elgin, Moray, has been giving evidence since last Thursday at the trial of Nat Fraser, his former friend and the best man at his wedding.
Fraser, 53, denies acting with others to murder his wife and says if the alleged offence was committed, then it could have been carried out by Mr Dick.
Mother-of-two Mrs Fraser, 33, of New Elgin, Moray, vanished on April 28 1998 and has never been seen since. No body has ever been found. The court heard she was separated from her husband when she disappeared.
The trial, now in its second week, heard that Mr Dick was secretly recorded talking to Kevin Ritchie – the man he said he bought a car from at Fraser's request – on January 19, 1999.
During questioning by defence QC John Scott, the jury was read transcripts of their conversation.
The court heard that Mr Ritchie stated: "I don't know nothing about f****** her, her car or nothing else. I f****** never heard of her until she disappeared."
In response, Mr Dick replied: "I kent (knew) the silly b******."
Mr Scott asked whether that had been a reference to Mrs Fraser, to which the witness replied that it "could be".
Pressed on the issue, he said: "I think it is. I was just checking to see whether I was speaking about Nat.
"It would be Arlene I was referring to."
It is alleged Mrs Fraser, of Smith Street, was strangled or assaulted by other unknown means and murdered between April 28 and May 7, 1998.
The trial continues today, before judge Lord Bracadale.
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