Two men have been convicted of abducting, torturing and murdering missing businesswoman Lynda Spence, who disappeared two years ago.
Colin Coats and Philip Wade, both 42, taped the 27-year-old financial adviser to a chair in a flat in Ayrshire in April 2011 and assaulted her every day for almost two weeks, then killed her.
A jury at the High Court in Glasgow found them guilty following an 11-week trial.
Coats and Wade forced Ms Spence into a car on Broomhill Path, Glasgow, on April14 2011 and drove her to West Kilbride, Ayrshire, where David Parker and Paul Smith let them in to Parker’s flat in Meadowfoot Road.
When she arrived, Ms Spence was wearing sunglasses which were taped on the inside, and Coats gripped on to her waist.
Wade carried in a tool bag which was referred to during the trial as “the torture kit”, containing garden loppers, surgical tape and vinyl gloves.
They immediately whisked the woman upstairs to the attic area and taped her to a leather chair by the arms and waist.
In the days that followed, the two men would arrive every day to hurt her, as a way of trying to extract financial information. She was burned with an iron, hit with a golf club and they crushed her toes, cut off her thumb and severed her pinkie finger.
Parker told how he originally believed the arrangement was to help somebody that needed to get out of Glasgow, but as the situation “snowballed” he could see no way out of it.
He and Smith were also charged with Ms Spence’s murder but were cleared after pleading guilty to a reduced charge of holding her against her will and assaulting her.
Ms Spence was not allowed to move from the chair for the 13 days she was there, and had to urinate and defecate where she sat. On April 27 2011, Parker and Smith were dismissed by Coats and Wade, who told them: “Yous (sic) can go.”
During the trial the court heard how Ms Spence and Coats were involved in a land deal at Stansted Airport, in which Coats claimed to have invested all of his money.
Wade was described as his “right-hand man” in the killing and later told a friend, Pamela Pearson, that he helped dispose of a woman’s body.
A statement released by Lynda’s parents said, “There is no verdict that will bring our daughter Lynda back or spare her the terrible ordeal that took her life.
“We will never begin to imagine her suffering or comprehend the cruelty of any person who would do that to another human being.
“We cannot begin to understand or forgive what they did to our daughter, Lynda. No words can begin to describe the heartache and pain we are suffering.
“We would like to give our sincere thanks to the Solicitor General and her team for their dedication and bringing this case to a satisfactory outcome. We would also like to extend our thanks to Detective Superintendant Alan Buchanan and his team for their investigation in this case and to PETAL for their valued support. All have been of great support throughout this ordeal.
“Lynda was a warm, kind and thoughtful daughter and was someone who always had time for others.
“We miss her so much.”