LISTEN: MFR News exclusive goes national
Police re-examination of Kevin McLeod's death in Wick features on Scotland's Talk In
Last updated 2nd Feb 2018
MFR News reporter Bryan Rutherford went live across Scotland this morning, to tell the story of how a grieving mum picking up the phone to call Ally Bally on Scotland's Talk In, has sparked a police re-examination of her son's death almost 20-years-ago.
It was heard not only on MFR2, but also on our sister Scottish radio stations including Clyde2, Forth2, Tay2, and Northsound2.
If you were listening to MFR on Thursday, then you would have heard our news team breaking the exclusive, and heard one of Kevin McLeod's brothers, Andrew, breaking his silence over the family's loss of the 24-year-old electrician.
His body was found in Wick Harbour in February 1997, and despite suggestions that Kevin may have been murdered, the then Northern Constabulary failed to investigate the lead, and treated his drowning as accidental.
Kevin suffered severe internal injuries to his abdomen, but Northern Constabulary believed that he died after tripping and falling onto a bollard - causing those injuries.
A Fatal Accident Inquiry later returned an open verdict, and so the case has, in a way, remained unresolved since then.
According to the pathologist who carried out the post-mortem, in a letter to the family written in August 2008, Dr Rosslyn Rankin - who has since retired from NHS Highland - wrote: "Prior to commencing the post-mortem I received a police report describing the circumstances of Kevin's death...I do not recall any references to an assault having taken place. My recall is that there was mention of an argument or similar, i.e. a verbal exchange only.
"I would have assumed that having reported to the Procurator Fiscal, the post-mortem finding of an internal injury to the abdomen, that the death would have been further investigated as a "suspicious death" at least until a satisfactory accidental explanation for the abdominal injury had been established and no evidence of an assault found."
"I would have assumed that having reported to the Procurator Fiscal, the post-mortem finding of an internal injury to the abdomen, that the death would have been further investigated as a "suspicious death" DR RANKIN, PATHOLOGIST
In a letter from Procurator Fiscal Alasdair MacDonald to the McLeod's dated March 2007 he wrote: "On 10 February 1997 I was in court but received a message that Dr Rankin the pathologist required to contact me urgently. I spoke with her during an adjournment of the court about the middle of that day and she informed me that the preliminary findings at post mortem revealed that the deceased had a "burst liver and internal bleeding, possibly consistent with a kicking received several hours before death"...I also informed Detective Sergeant Martin that this was now potentially a murder enquiry and should be treated as such, the phrase which I think I used was "the full works".
Northern Constabulary has always claimed it has no record of any instruction to its officers for them to launch a murder inquiry.
Over the years the McLeod family have written over 300-letters to public officials, and spent well over £50,000 campaigning for the police, now Police Scotland, to take a fresh look at the case which, in the words of Kevin's dad Hugh, has "ruined" his life, and mum June says it's thrown them all into living a daily "hell" at great personal expense to their health and happiness.
Last month mum June McLeod confronted Scotland's top cop on the national radio show Scotland's Talk In, which you can hear every Sunday on MFR2.
She told Chief Constable Phil Gormley: "I want you Mr Gormley to tell me why your new police force is refusing to right that wrong and carry out a new investigation?"
And he replied: "Well June, I'm very sorry to hear that...It's not something I can really go into detail on-air, and I'm sure that you'll appreciate that. We constantly keep under review unresolved cases. I'm quite happy off-air to examine the circumstances that you've referred to."
"I also informed Detective Sergeant Martin that this was now potentially a murder enquiry and should be treated as such, the phrase which I think I used was "the full works" ALASDAIR MACDONALD, PROCURATOR FISCAL
Since that call, Scotland's top cop has told his Major Crime unit's boss to "re-examine" the case.
Our Inverness-based reporter, who covers Highland, Moray, and parts of Aberdeenshire, explained: "What's happening at the moment is not a re-investigation, and it's not an official review either, because Kevin's death is not strictly a cold case.
"For this to become a murder inquiry, new information - something not previously known - or new evidence - something not previously gathered - would have to be found by the police who would take those findings to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, which would then order a new investigation, if it's considered appropriate."
"But all that Police Scotland is currently doing is taking a look at the evidence gathered by the legacy police force - work the national force inherited when it was set up.
"What is significant though, is that along with the re-examination of the case's documents, there is fresh police activity in Wick, with detectives said to be carrying out 'further investigative work.'
"And bearing in mind that June, Hugh, and the rest of the family have been campaigning for almost two-decades for renewed police attention to Kevin's death, a single phone call to Scotland's Talk In has achieved more for the grieving family than those many years of fighting the system.
"The McLeod's have been promised a sit-down with the man in-charge of the Major Crime unit - a Detective Chief Superintendent - once the police 'enquiries' are finished."
An update is expected at the end of this month, and you can keep up to date about this by following us on Twitter.