Truth and Justice For Patrick Docherty

 

                                      

                              Additional Information on the case here

On Tuesday March 1st 2005, at Kilmarnock High Court, Brendan Dixon and Patrick Docherty were both found guilty of the murder of Margaret Irvine.

Colin Miller, a third co-accused recieved a verdict of Not Proven.

Mrs Irvine had lived alone for over 25 years and had been housebound for the last seven years of her life.

During the night of July 4th 2003, Mrs Irvine's home was broken into and £1000 was stolen.

No one was ever convicted of this crime.

Mrs Margaret Irvine lived in Galston, Ayrshire. She was 91 years old and had been a widow for over 30 years. She was brutally murdered on Sunday, 28th September 2003.

Every room in her home showed signs of an intruder. Drawers had been opened, jewellery boxes opened and items had been moved.

Yet, in the spare room was a locked wardrobe that had not been broken into. Indeed there was no sign of any attempt to force it open.

Police later found the key.

When they opened the wardrobe they found a pink make up bag, an envelope and a cardboard holder, each of which had money in them. In total there was £8,150.

The evidence does suggest that this was an attempt to make it look like a robbery, yet the only cupboard with over eight grand in it had no signs of being tampered with.

On October 31st, 2003, Patrick Docherty and Brendan Dixon were charged with the murder of  Mrs Margaret Irvine.

Brendan and Patrick did not hang around with each other, although they did know each other.

They spent from November 3rd 2003, until January 6th 2004 in prison on remand for this crime.

Colin Miller, the third  accused man in this case had gone from being the chief witness to being a suspect.

Almost a year later, Colin Miller aged 31, was charged with murder and appeared at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court.  

On January 6th, 2004, the crown decided, due to unforseen circumstances they no longer opposed bail for the men. Therefore, they were immediately released after appearing at Kilmarnock Court.

The unforseen circumstances:

None of the  DNA recovered from the scene by the Crown matched any of the two suspects.

Neither did the footprint.

There was no physical evidence in this case. It was based on hearsay and circumstantial evidence

Police recovered DNA and footprints from the murder scene but they did not belong to any of the accused.

A number of key witnesses, who are no strangers to police, had themselves been questioned about the murder. Several of these witnesses statements were extremely contradictory and at best totally uncorroborated.

It is important that ALL the evidence is now heard, not just for the sake of Patrick and Brendan, but also for the sake of Mrs Margaret Irvine, who most certainly did not deserve to be killed.

MOJO, the Miscarriage of Justice Organisation has uncovered evidence which it claims was not presented to the defence, including a restaurant worker who wasn't called to give evidence. The witness in question provided precognition testimony that she had seen two men outside the dead woman's house on the day her body was found. One of the men, who was picked out from a photo identification, gave evidence for the prosecution.

Dixon's lawyer Graham Cunningham said: "Had this evidence been available there might have been a different verdict, this information is beneficial to my client's appeal.

On 16th October 2008 the Privy Refused to allow disclosure on the case.

 

Some details

Mrs Margaret Irvine was found dead in her bedroom in Galston, by her carer at 4.50pm on September 18, 2003.

By 7th October 2003, detectives had interviewed a number of local people about the killing but had not yet made an arrest.

It emerged also that the frail widow was the victim of a previous break-in 4th July 2002, during which some personal effects were stolen.

 

On 31st October 2003 both men where arrested.

 

On 3rd November 2003,both men where taken to Kilmarnock Sherrif Court and formally charged with murder. They where remanded in custody until further investigation could be done.

They were then bailed. Why would people accused of such a horrible crime be bailed for over a year? It makes no sense.

 

Almost a year later, Colin Miller aged 31, was charged with murder and appeared at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court, he was also then bailed.

 

All three defendants where all freed on bail from November 2003 until the trial in March 2005.

 

On Tuesday March 1st 2005, At Kilmarnock High Court Brendan Dixon and Patrick Docherty were both found guilty of the murder of Margaret Irvine.

 

Colin Millar was found to be "Not Proven"  (The 'not proven' verdict is an acquittal used when the judge or jury does not have enough evidence to convict but is not sufficiently convinced of the defendant's innocence to bring in a "not guilty" verdict. Essentially, the judge or jury is unconvinced that the suspect is innocent, but has insufficient evidence to the contrary.)

 

The entire case was based on hearsay and circumstantial evidence.