A man has been arrested in connection with the murder of a scientist in Aberdeen 42 years ago.

The body of Dr Brenda Page, 32, was found in her flat in the city’s Allan Street in July, 1978.

Detective Inspector Gary Winter, of Police Scotland’s major investigation team, has appealed for anyone with information about the case to come forward.

The age of the man who has been arrested is 79.

It comes after police launched an extensive inquiry at the time of her death into the events surrounding the death of the Aberdeen University geneticist.

The case, which shook the Granite City, is one of Scotland’s most notorious unsolved cold cases.

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A pioneering research scientist by day and an escort by night, Dr Page was last seen at 2am on July 14, 1978, when she left a hotel in Aberdeen where she had been entertaining two clients.

She was found hours later in her home by a university colleague who had become worried when she failed to turn up for work.

Dr Page had been beaten to death in her flat in what police described as a frenzied attack.

A damaged window suggested that the propertyflat had been broken into but nothing had been stolen.

She had been working at Aberdeen University on a project for the Department of Energy, investigating dangers facing divers in the North Sea oil industry.

There have been claims that the death could have been linked to her research. At the time of the murder, she was living alone, having divorced her husband and fellow academic, Dr Christopher Harrison, six months earlier.

In early July 1978, Page had dinner with William Austin, who ran the Capital Escort Agency. Mr Austin recalled that Dr Page seemed frightened and “concerned about her safety”.

On July 13, she went as an escort to the Treetops Hotel in Aberdeen to meet two business men. Dr Page is spotted leaving the hotel at 2.30am - the last time she’s seen alive.

Dr Page failed to show up for work the next day, and her body was discovered when a colleague called at her home looking for ‘material for a research programme’.

A cold case review was launched in 2015 and, in three years, gathered 800 individual pieces of information on top of all the evidence gathered at the time.

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But, decades later, despite 75 policemen and detectives working on the case when it was first opened, subsequent DNA analysis and renewed calls for information in 2018, the investigation remains live. Detective Inspector Gary Winter, of Police Scotland’s major investigation team said: “I would like to appeal to anyone who believes they may have information relevant to the enquiry and who has not previously come forward or been seen by the police.

“I would also urge any previous witnesses from 1978, or from the subsequent review from 2014

onwards who have changed contact address or telephone numbers to get in touch and update us.”

Last week, a new audio series, called Reporter – Black Gold, probed into the details of the case and featured interviews with Dr Page’s from her friends, family and those involved.