'Body in bin liners' murderer jailed for at least 25 years

Shop worker Alan Cameron, 56, hid Heather Stacey's decomposing body at her Edinburgh flat for more than a year before scattering the parts across the north of the city.

The "inhuman" crime only came to light when a dog walker found the 44-year-old's severed head in a bin bag near a popular footpath on Hogmanay 2008.

Cameron was jailed for life at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday and ordered to spend a minimum of 25 years behind bars before he can be considered for release.

He was convicted, after an eight-day trial in Livingston last month, of killing the mother of four at her Royston Mains Place home sometime between November 29 and December 11 2007.

Cameron, from Edinburgh, was further found guilty of attempting to defeat the ends of justice and of stealing nearly 5,000 over 11 months from his victim's Post Office account.

It was revealed, after the verdicts were delivered, that the killer was jailed for six and a half years in 1995 at the High Court in Glasgow for nine sex offences involving children. He was freed in June 1999 and placed on the sex offenders register for life.

It may never be clear how Cameron killed his fiance, a vulnerable woman who had been in violent past relationships but who was beginning to put her problems behind her.

Cameron may have murdered her to get his hands on her savings and benefits, or because he was jealous of her links with other men.

He embarked on an elaborate scheme to cover his tracks and, when her remains were found, they were so decayed scientists could not tell how she died.

As part of that scheme, the killer failed to report Ms Stacey's death and led people to think she was still alive. He sent a text message purporting to be from Ms Stacey and, months after her death, boasted to colleagues about his romantic dates with her.

Cameron then hid her body at the flat for 13 months and moved it between rooms.

He repeatedly returned to the property to check on the security and would even sleep in the same insect-infested flat as the rotting body.

He was forced to dispose of her remains when the city council made moves to repossess the property.

At some point after Ms Stacey died, Cameron made a botched attempt to chop up the body with a kitchen knife. He eventually pulled her badly decayed limbs apart with his hands.

Cameron then wrapped the body parts in bin liners and an Ikea bag and dumped them in secluded areas. He also dumped the soiled bedding.