A MAN accused of murdering a missing financial adviser has been asked to tell her parents where her remains are.
Solicitor general Lesley Thomson, QC, the prosecutor in the case, told Philip Wade, 42: "Look into your conscience," and she highlighted the distress of Lynda Spence's mother and father, Patricia and James Spence.
Ms Spence, a 27-year-old who worked as a financial adviser, has not been seen for almost two years, since April 2011. Prosecutors claim she was abducted, tortured and murdered by Wade and his co-accused, Colin Coats, 42 – charges they both deny.
At the High Court in Glasgow, Ms Thomson said: "Do you remember Lynda Spence's parents coming here to give evidence?
"And you saw the distress and grief of Mrs Spence when she was giving evidence?"
Wade replied: "Yes."
The solicitor general asked: "There are only two people who can tell Mrs Spence where her daughter's remains are, aren't there?" The witness said: "That's in your opinion."
Ms Thomson said: "What I'm going to ask you to do, Mr Wade, is to look into your conscience and tell them where Linda's remains are."
Gary Allan, QC, defending Wade, pointed out that Ms Thomson's questions contained an "assertion" that Ms Spence is dead.
He asked his client: "Can I ask you if you know she is dead?" Wade said: "I have no idea. I'm hoping that, wherever Lynda is, she hands herself in."
Mr Allan added: "When you last saw her, was she dead?"
The witness replied: "No."
The lawyer asked Wade if Ms Spence was distressed when he last saw her, to which he responded: "Not at all, [she was] just the usual Lynda."
Earlier Wade told the court a story that implicated him in Ms Spence's murder is "total fantasy".
The accounts were given by his two co-accused, Paul Smith, 47, and David Parker, 38.
They were acquitted of murder after pleading guilty to a reduced charge of holding Ms Spence against her will and assaulting her.
They both gave evidence in which they said they were asked by Wade and Coats to detain Ms Spence at a flat in Meadowfoot Road, West Kilbride, Ayrshire.
They said that the two accused men would visit every day to inflict violence on her.
Wade agreed with Ms Thomson that the story they had told had been horrific.
The solicitor general said: "But oddly, on hearing that horrific story, your defence counsel, Gary Allan, said the thing you were most shocked about from Paul Smith's evidence was that he said you had taken drugs in front of your kids?"
Wade replied: "The rest of the story is total fantasy but I would never take drugs in front of my kids."
The solicitor general said: "Whatever way you look at it, [Parker and Smith] are going to spend a long time in prison.
"Is that seriously your position, that their story is total fantasy?"
Wade replied that it was.
The trial continues and Parker and Smith are due to be sentenced on Monday.
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