"Many Photos" - Carers of vulnerable woman deny abducting and murdering her to 'rake in £182,000 in benefits'

Margaret Fleming, who would now be 38, was reported missing in October 2016 from her remote home in Inverkip which lies on the Scottish coast

The carers of a woman who has not been seen since 1999 deny abducting and murdering her to rake in £182,000 in benefits by pretending she was alive.

Edward Cairney, 77, and Avril Jones, 58, are accused of assaulting and killing the woman 19 years ago and then illegally claiming her disability payments - knowing that she was dead.  

Margaret Fleming, who would now be 38, was reported missing in October 2016 from her remote home in Inverkip, Inverclyde, on the Scottish coast.  

The pair allegedly abducted Ms Fleming and locked her in a room, cut her hair, and bound her arms and wrists with tape.

Ms Fleming was also allegedly assaulted by the pair who pretended to officials from the Department for Work and Pensions that she was was alive for almost 20 years.

The pair managed to rake in £182,000 by fraud.

It also is alleged that they disposed the body and concealed the remains of Ms Fleming between December 1999 and October 2017. 

Their lawyers entered not guilty pleas to the charges on their behalf during a hearing at the High Court in Glasgow on Tuesday, which Cairney did not attend.  

They also face two charges of attempting to defeat the ends of justice. 

Edward Cairney (right), 77, and Avril Jones (left), 58, are accused of assaulting and killing the woman 19 years ago and then illegally claiming her disability payments - knowing that she was dead 

Cairney pictured in a car. It also is alleged that they disposed the body and concealed the remains of Ms Fleming between December 1999 and October 2017

A search for her was launched after officers were asked by social work officers to visit her remote five-bedroom house, which lies next to the Scottish coast.

Police forensic teams spent months sifting through the house, where she lived with her carers, for any documentation of her life, and a large garden at the property was excavated as part of the search.

The probe extended more than 500 metres into the River Clyde and also into a nearby woodland but her whereabouts remain a mystery.

Before Ms Fleming started living with her carers, she had lived with her father Frederick in Port Glasgow until his death in 1995.

Cairney and Jones are also accused of trying to board a train to London on October 25, 2017, while carrying £3,500 and the keys to a safe deposit box in London which contained £27,000.

Cairney is also accused of assaulting another woman at a property in Inverkip on November 26, 1997.

Lord Matthews set a trial date for April 23. 

Aerial view of the police search at home of Margaret Fleming in Inverkip, Inverclyde, who went missing from her home

The probe extended more than 500 metres into the River Clyde and also into a nearby woodland but her whereabouts remain a mystery

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News Photo Carers of vulnerable woman deny abducting and murdering her to 'rake in £182,000 in benefits'
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