THE former fiance of a Scots tycoon who fell to his death from her London penthouse has told of the void his sudden passing has left in her life.
Socialite and reality TV star Noelle Reno was engaged to businessman Scot Young for four years, but the couple's relationship had foundered in the weeks before his death.
Mr Young, of Dundee, who built up a multi-million property empire, was impaled on railings after falling from the upmarket flat at Montagu Square, Marylebone, central London, on December 8 last year.
He had become a familiar face in the law courts because of a bitter-six year divorce battle with his former wife Michelle. An inquest into his death is currently underway, but Ms Reno said she believed it was suicide.
Ms Reno said: "Four days before we were due to depart from Waterloo to Brussels somebody very close to me, Scot Young, committed suicide.
"Scot and I had recently broken up after five and half years together, for most of which we were engaged."
Mr Young, 52, who was sent to prison during the vitriolic and public divorce row with his ex wife, died in what is said to have been a grisly and brutal scene.
He was identified by his brother-in-law Guy van Ristell, with details supplied to the police by his daughter Sasha.
In March last year, a High Court hearing was told that Mr Young's estranged wife remained empty-handed more than three months after she was awarded £20 million by a judge.
Mr Justice Moor assessed Mr Young to be worth £40 million - after analysing evidence at a trial - and said Mrs Young was entitled to half of that.
The judge said the businessman might have hidden assets offshore. Mrs Young said she thought he was worth ''billions'' and claimed he had hidden a ''vast fortune''.
Mr Young said he had suffered a financial ''meltdown'' seven years ago and was bankrupt and penniless, with debts adding up to £28 million.
The judge described the litigation - which began more than six years ago - as ''quite extraordinary''
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