Arlene Fraser: 'Surely the guilt of what he did will always be there...'

HE has grieved for his daughter Arlene Fraser for ten years, yearning for the day when her body might be found.

Now Hector McInnes, father of the murdered mother-of-two, has to face more emotional turmoil – the possibility that within weeks the husband convicted of her murder might walk free.

Today the 69-year-old grandfather is at his Bonnyrigg home, braced for news of when the next stage of Nat Fraser's appeal against his conviction might begin.

On Monday he travelled to Elgin, for a sombre family gathering to mark ten years since the 33-year-old disappeared from her home in the town. Family and friends were determined to draw strength from each other and remember the young mother's life.

"I suppose everything that's happened has come to just grow on us," says Mr McInnes, who lives in Harmony Street, Bonnyrigg, with his second wife Cathie, 71. "To be perfectly honest, the tenth anniversary wasn't as bad as the first or the second – those were very hard to bear.

"Besides, I did a lot of my grieving for Arlene when she died and then I grieved for myself too. Now I choose to just remember her."

Arlene disappeared on April 28, 1998, after waving her children off to school – on the day she was due at talks with her lawyer about a £250,000 divorce settlement. A nationwide search yielded nothing. Her husband Nat had attacked her before, yet he coolly went on television to appeal for her return.

Five years later he was in the dock of the High Court in Edinburgh, accused of paying a hitman to strangle Arlene and dispose of her body by dismembering, burning and scattering her remains. He was sentenced to serve at least 25 years of a life sentence.

But instead of the conviction bringing Mr McInnes's anguish to an end, his grief continues. Fraser's appeal began last year – the next stage in the hearing is expected to begin within weeks. "We've been told the appeal is imminent, so we can't make any plans to do anything," says Mr McInnes.

Fraser had enjoyed 20 months of freedom pending the appeal hearing, only to be returned to prison in November.

Today Mr McInnes revealed how he stoically refused to let his emotions spill over as he came face-to-face with his daughter's killer in the court corridors.

"Thankfully we didn't see him when he was out of jail, apart from in the corridor. I would just say 'Good morning' and he'd reply the same," said Mr McInnes.

"It stuck in my throat a bit but I kept reminding myself that it's him that has all the problems, that he is obviously a sick man."

The case against Fraser was one of Scotland's most high-profile court hearings. It hinged on the discovery of Arlene's rings, said to have been missing from the home at the start of the police investigation into her disappearance, only to appear later in the bathroom. The prosecution argued that this showed Fraser had access to her body, had removed the rings and returned them later to the house. But appeal court judges have heard claims the rings were seen by a police officer during the initial search, whose statement was never passed to prosecutors or defence agents prior to the trial. Fraser claims he did not receive a fair trial.

"Obviously we are apprehensive about the outcome of the appeal," admits Mr McInnes. "It is all about procedure, lawyers saying to each other that one didn't tell the other one this or that.

"I can't believe he could be released on a technicality like that. Surely the guilt of what he did is always going to be there."

Had she lived, Arlene would have been 43 years old, probably divorced and enjoying a "new life", her father adds. "She had started college, was talking about becoming a travel agent, working with computers and doing business studies," he says. "She could have gone on to do anything. So of course you wonder sometimes what she would be like now."

The hardest burden of all for the family is the mystery over where Arlene's remains may lie. "It would be nice to find out Arlene is lying at peace in the Moray countryside," says Mr McInnes.

"But will her body ever be found? I really do not know."