A speeding drink-driver who killed a charity cyclist in a hit and run in the Scottish highlands confessed three years later to his girlfriend, who told police where the body had been hidden.
Alexander McKellar admitted hitting Tony Parsons, 63, with an Isuzu pickup on the A82 near remote Bridge of Orchy in 2017.
McKellar, who was over the drink-drive limit, left the seriously-injured cyclist by the side of the road in the dark and wet weather, causing his death, according to a narrative read out in the High Court in Glasgow on Friday by advocate depute Alex Prentice KC.
He then moved Mr Parsons’ body and hid it on the vast Auch Estate, with the help of his twin brother, Robert McKellar. The pair admitted a charge of attempting to defeat the ends of justice by burying him and disposing of his belongings.
Police searching the grounds at Auch Estate for Tony Parsons’ body— (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
Mr Parsons was a former submariner who left the Royal Navy in 1994 after 22 years’ service. He decided to take part in a charity cycle, attempting to ride 160km (100 miles) from Fort William, in the western highlands, to his home in Tillicoultry, Clackmannanshire.
Mr Prentice said: “He was a much-loved husband, father, grandfather, brother and friend, as was evidenced by the victim impact statements the court has had. He had very close community ties.”
On 29 September 2017 he stopped at the remote Bridge of Orchy Hotel for a coffee, but decided to keep cycling rather than stay the night. After he failed to return home, a missing person inquiry was launched but no trace of him was found.
An aerial view of the Auch estate, where the body of charity cyclist Tony Parsons was moved— (PA)
Both McKellar brothers were farm workers, with Alexander also being a deer stalker. On the day of Mr Parsons’s death, they had been with a German hunting group, going drinking with them in the evening at the Bridge of Orchy Hotel.
Mr Prentice said that Alexander McKellar began a relationship with a woman in September 2020. The following November, she asked if there was in anything in his past which could affect their relationship.
“He disclosed that three years previously, he had been driving the Isuzu. He said they were driving at excessive speed.”
Alexander McKellar who pleaded guilty to culpable homicide and attempting to pervert the course of justice— (PA)
Alexander McKellar told the woman he had been distracted by oncoming headlights and had struck something at the side of the road, which turned out to be a cyclist, Mr Prentice said.
He told the woman that he and Robert had returned to the A82, moving the cyclist’s body and possessions into a Toyota, which they drove to the Auch Estate before burying them.
The woman informed the police.
Robert McKellar, who pled guilty to attempting to pervert the course of justice— (PA)
It emerged the twin brothers had initially placed Mr Parsons body in woods, before later using an excavator to bury him in a peat bog where animal carcasses were disposed of.
Police arrested the McKellars on 20 December 2020 and Mr Parsons’s body was recovered for forensic examination. A pathologist determined that the cyclist had suffered “extensive injuries” and he would have been unlikely to survive.
Judge Lord Armstrong said he was adjourning the case for reports and a further hearing will take place on 25 August.
Some of Mr Parsons’s friends and family attended Friday’s court hearing. Roger Jones, 75, who served alongside Mr Parsons in the Royal Navy, described his friend as a “great person” and a “nice guy”.
“My personal opinion is, I’m disgusted with the whole thing,” he told Sky News. “The fact that these two guys just basically let him die and then tried to cover it up – [I am] disgusted.”
