A new TV documentary has taken viewers inside the trial of Fife murderer David Barnes – and revealed the heartbreak of his victim’s family.
Murder Trial: Body in the Warehouse offers behind-the-scenes access to the court room as Barnes stands trial for killing Ean Coutts.
The 60-year-old was murdered in Kinglassie in 2019 and his body dumped in a disused warehouse in Glenrothes, where it was found more than a year later.
The new BBC Scotland documentary shows witnesses giving evidence in Barnes’ trial and hears from Ean’s family.
Sister of Fife ‘body in warehouse’ murder victim speaks in new TV documentary
In an interview for the documentary, sister Audrey Reid – who reconnected with Ean a year before he was murdered after being estranged from each other – told how she would stare down Barnes every day he was on trial.
She said: “Every time I walked into that court I stared at him and never took my eyes off him.
“Just to say, ‘You’re no winning – I see you,’ and I wanted him to see me and Ean’s daughters were there because Ean had a family – he had people that loved him.”
She also revealed how she feared Barnes could walk free due to a lack of certainty over what caused her brother’s death.
She said:Â “I remember looking at the jury and thinking it was really hard to tell what they were thinking.
“I worried that because they didn’t know how he died they might find (Barnes) not guilty.
“I was scared that he was going to walk and just knowing that he could walk up to my door any day.
“I was terrified, just terrified that it wasn’t the verdict that we wanted to get.”
Following the jury’s guilty verdict, she said:Â “I feel justice was done.”
Urban explorer recalls moment he found Ean Coutts’ body
Ean’s body was found hidden in a cupboard inside a warehouse at Whitehill Industrial Estate by urban explorer James Fenton in 2020.
Speaking to BBC Scotland about the find, James said:Â “I just saw white, dull, bony kind of material.
“I kicked one of the boxes off and that’s when I saw the skull, the ribcage and the foot coming up the side of the wall.
“At first I couldn’t get myself round believing what it actually was until I saw mummified skin at the back of the neck and on the back of the foot.”
Ean’s daughters, Emma and Louise, also spoke to the BBC for the documentary.
The pair moved to England with their mum when they were young but had hoped they would one day reunite with their dad.
The pair sat in the public gallery during the trial, just yards away from Barnes in the dock.
Emma said:Â “We wanted to be at the trial because he was still our dad and he died in an undignified way.
“In a way, we feel guilty because we were estranged but he was still our dad and there were still a lot of feelings there.
“We hoped to have the chance to get back in contact but that was taken away – that is gut-wrenching.”
The documentary reveals how the exact cause and location of Ean’s death has never been discovered.
As a result, it was up to the prosecution to provide enough circumstantial evidence to prove that Ean was murdered and did not die of natural causes.
Prosecutor Alex Prentice KC told the show this was his biggest challenge.
He said:Â “The jury will be invited to convict someone of the murder of a man when they don’t know how he died – that’s quite a challenge.
“I have to explain how the surrounding evidence is such that it would allow an inference that the accused is responsible for his death because they may ask themselves how can they convict someone of murder when they don’t know what he did.”
The Courier previously told how neighbours’ suspicions and airport luggage helped snare Barnes as Ean’s killer.
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