Merseyside investigation 'could be last chance to get justice for Kevin'
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THE independent investigation by Merseyside Police "could be the last chance" to get justice for Kevin McLeod, whose body was found in Wick harbour in February 1997.
That is the view of the 24-year-old's father, Hugh, who appeared with his wife June in a live broadcast on STV's Scotland Tonight last Thursday.
The couple spoke from their home in Wick to presenter Rona Dougall, who was in the studio in Glasgow. The programme also featured two Scottish mothers who lost sons within days of one another in 2019 and are looking for answers to why they died.
June said she had "the deepest sympathy" for them.
"I have been there and am still there 23 years on," she said.
Her advice to the grieving mothers was to "keep fighting and don't stop until you get answers".
She said: "Losing a child is very, very painful."
The McLeod family believe Kevin was murdered – due to the injuries on his body – after a night out in the town, but the police claim his death was the result of a tragic accident.
Hugh was asked about the police investigation and the then Northern Constabulary not treating the incident as a murder inquiry despite being instructed to do so by the procurator fiscal at Wick.
He was highly critical of the handling of the case and said no forensics had been carried out and no door-to-door enquiries were made.
Hugh agreed it would be difficult to get to the bottom of what happened to Kevin more than two decades ago. "It makes it harder but it doesn't make it impossible," he said. "We live with the hope we will get justice for Kevin."
Hugh said the independent review could be the last chance to solve the case.
"We have to put trust in the Merseyside Police as we have lost trust in the local police and Police Scotland," he told the programme. "They haven't told us the truth."
He pointed out that the family had to wait 10 years for the Cameron report which said a murder inquiry should have been carried out. They waited another decade until 2017 before being told the police did get the instruction to treat the case as as a murder inquiry but failed to act on it.
"That is the most deplorable thing I have ever heard," Hugh said.
June was asked about how she had coped over the past 23 years. She said the pain and trauma she and the rest of the family have been through was "horrendous".
"If the police had done their job properly we would not be sitting here today," she said. "The pain will never go away, even if we get justice for Kevin. We have never had the chance to grieve as we have been carrying out our own investigations, along with my brother, Allan."
Hugh was asked what kind of person Kevin was and, with emotion in his voice, said he was "quiet and never in trouble".
He added: "We never had any bother with Kevin. You would never know he was in the house. He was such a good lad."
