25 August 2023 , 09:39
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A drink driver who mowed down a charity cyclist and killed him, before abandoning him at the side of a road, has been jailed for 12 years.
Alexander McKellar, 31, caused the death of 63-year-old Tony Parsons when he hit him with his car on the A82, near the Bridge of Orchy, Argyll and Bute, on September 29, 2017. Mr Parsons had set off from his home in Tillicoultry, Clackmannanshire, on a 100-mile charity bike ride to Fort William.
But he vanished on the bike ride and a missing persons inquiry was launched on October 2, when he failed to return home. McKellar and his twin brother Robert, had been out drinking before they climbed into their car and took off, driving "excess speed and when unfit through alcohol”.
Tony Parsons had been on a charity bike ride when he was hit and killed (Daily Record)When he was "distracted" by the headlights, he hit Mr Parsons and killed him. But instead of stopping to help, the brothers fled. With “reckless disregard” for the consequences of his actions, he left Mr Parsons by the side of the road “in a remote location during the hours of darkness and in inclement weather”, causing his death.
The court heard in a narrative last month how some time between September 29, 2017 and January 3, 2021, the McKellar brothers returned to the A82 and moved Mr Parsons’s body to the Auch Estate and buried him with an excavator in a peat bog where animal carcasses were disposed of.
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Tony's body was only uncovered thanks to one woman's quick thinking where she marked where he was with a can of Red Bull (PA)The brothers also hid Mr Parsons’s bicycle behind a waterfall on the Auch Estate but this has never been recovered, the court heard. The brothers might have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for the quick-thinking of one woman.
She had begun a relationship with McKellar in 2020 and asked him if there was anything from his past that might affect them. It was then he confessed to her about hitting Mr Parsons, and hiding his body. She asked to see it, and when there, dropped a can of Red Bull, and tipped off police so they could locate the body.
Alexander McKellar (PA Media)
Robert McKellar (PA Media)The two men were arrested on December 20, 2020 and Mr Parsons’s body was recovered for forensic investigation in January 2021. Originally charged with murdering Mr Parsons, McKellar pleaded guilty to an amended charge of culpable homicide and was jailed for 12 years today. McKellar and his twin brother Robert also admitted attempting to defeat the ends of justice at the High Court in Glasgow last month.
The cyclist’s family released a statement after the guilty pleas, saying he loved “nothing more” than spending time with his grandchildren. The statement said: “As you can imagine, not knowing what has happened to someone and then the devastating news that we were provided has taken its toll on all of us as a family.
“At last justice has been done and we would like to thank not only the court officials and officers from scotland>Police Scotland’s major investigation team, Forth Valley Division; and other Police Scotland departments who worked on this case, but all the volunteers and mountain rescue teams who tirelessly searched for him in the earlier stages of the inquiry.”