Drink-driver confessed to accomplice he buried physique of charity bicycle owner after hit-and-run

A rushing drink-driver who killed a charity bicycle owner in a success and run within the Scottish highlands confessed three years later to his girlfriend, who informed police the place the physique had been hidden.

Alexander McKellar admitted hitting Tony Parsons, 63, with an Isuzu pickup on the A82 close to distant Bridge of Orchy in 2017.

McKellar, who was over the drink-drive restrict, left the seriously-injured bicycle owner by the facet of the highway at the hours of darkness and moist climate, inflicting his loss of life, in response to a story learn out within the Excessive Court docket in Glasgow on Friday by advocate depute Alex Prentice KC.

He then moved Mr Parsons’ physique and hid it on the huge Auch Property, with the assistance of his twin brother, Robert McKellar. The pair admitted a cost of making an attempt to defeat the ends of justice by burying him and disposing of his belongings.

Mr Parsons was a former submariner who left the Royal Navy in 1994 after 22 years’ service. He determined to participate in a charity cycle, making an attempt to journey 160km (100 miles) from Fort William, within the western highlands, to his dwelling in Tillicoultry, Clackmannanshire.

Mr Prentice mentioned: “He was a much-loved husband, father, grandfather, brother and good friend, as was evidenced by the sufferer affect statements the court docket has had. He had very shut neighborhood ties.”

On 29 September 2017 he stopped on the distant Bridge of Orchy Resort for a espresso, however determined to maintain biking relatively than keep the night time. After he did not return dwelling, a lacking particular person inquiry was launched however no hint of him was discovered.

Each McKellar brothers had been farm staff, with Alexander additionally being a deer stalker. On the day of Mr Parsons’s loss of life, they’d been with a German searching group, going consuming with them within the night on the Bridge of Orchy Resort.

Mr Prentice mentioned that Alexander McKellar started a relationship with a lady in September 2020. The next November, she requested if there was in something in his previous which might have an effect on their relationship.

“He disclosed that three years beforehand, he had been driving the Isuzu. He mentioned they had been driving at extreme pace.”

Alexander McKellar informed the girl he had been distracted by oncoming headlights and had struck one thing along side the highway, which turned out to be a bicycle owner, Mr Prentice mentioned.

He informed the girl that he and Robert had returned to the A82, transferring the bicycle owner’s physique and possessions right into a Toyota, which they drove to the Auch Property earlier than burying them.

The girl knowledgeable the police.

It emerged the dual brothers had initially positioned Mr Parsons physique in woods, earlier than later utilizing an excavator to bury him in a peat bathroom the place animal carcasses had been disposed of.

Police arrested the McKellars on 20 December 2020 and Mr Parsons’s physique was recovered for forensic examination. A pathologist decided that the bicycle owner had suffered “in depth accidents” and he would have been unlikely to outlive.

Choose Lord Armstrong mentioned he was adjourning the case for studies and an additional listening to will happen on 25 August.

A few of Mr Parsons’s family and friends attended Friday’s court docket listening to. Roger Jones, 75, who served alongside Mr Parsons within the Royal Navy, described his good friend as a “nice particular person” and a “good man”.

“My private opinion is, I’m disgusted with the entire thing,” he informed Sky Information. “The truth that these two guys simply mainly let him die after which tried to cowl it up – [I am] disgusted.”