Legacy and Remembrance

Hello there and welcome to Murder Most British. I'm Zach. Hey welcome. I'm Rachel Wh, let's go. I can hear you Tommy. Another epode. Yeah, see, I'm hungry again. Every episode around this time Well, welcome guys. Wlcome to this week. Yes, thank you for joining us We've got quite a crazy one up in Scotland this week Yeah this one was a bit Oh You'll finds out tough with. It's quite a gruesome. It's just a horrible case Yeah It's not good. It's you know, but You got to tell the stories, you got to, you know, Remember the victims Before we begin, a quick note from the archive. We've got some really exciting news on our launch on Patreon. Yeah On march thirty first, the doors open to the village Crypt A free episodes, early access to every case, and two exclusive Brits abroad stories each month. Looking forward to it For those who want to go further, the Archist order unlocks two unsolved stories every month, plus recorded Q and A's. How exciting. 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Listener discretion is strongly advised No Let's get to the story Queens Park rises quietly above Glasgow's southide By day it is open ground, a hilltop where people walk dogs, cross between streets or stop to look out across the city skyline. But after dark, the park changes. Paths are empty the heel falls silent beyond the street lightights at his edges The center becomes a stretch of shadow between the trees. Late on the night of the twenty eighth of may of two thousand eight A woman parked her car on Queen's Drive Beside that part and stepped out into the quiet Her flat was not far away just across the road But something happened between the pavement and the park By the following morning, Queen's Park would be sealed behind police tappe and one of the most shocking crimes in modern Glasgow begin to unfold Qu's Park sits on Glasgow's south S side Stretching across roughly one hundred and forty eight acres of lawns and rising ground At its summit, marked by a flagpole, the park opens out into extensive views across the city And on clear days, the Camsee feells can be seen in the distance The park is bordered by busy streets, including Victoria Road Pollock Shaw's Road and Langside Road For those who live nearby, it forms part of the neighborhood around it and sits close to the tenements of Glasgow's south sideide Moira Jones had made that part of Glasgow her home She was four years old and worked as a sales executive for the Dreams company, Britvk Coeagues described her as diligent and passionate. and one said calling her merely professional did not do her justice. She was originally from Westteron in Staffordshire where she was born and grew up She lived in Glasgow for about five years Over time, Glasgow had become more than a workplace It had become home She lived in a tenement flat on Queen's Drive, overlooking Queens Park. Parents, B and Hugh Jones Be is Beatrice. He's called her be. Very cool U they remained in Staffordshire. And she spoke with them regularly Her brother Grant had moved to Australia In Glasgow, she built her own circle Coeagues, neighbors and long term relationships with Paul Thompson, whom she had been seeing for about four years Well in the weeks before twenty eighth of may two thousand eight There were small disturbances that unseetled her. There had been an attempted break in at the tenement where she lived somethingomething that left her shaken enough to mention it to colleagues Around the same time, she began receiving crude phone calls. Investigators would later trace those calls to a young boy in England But at the time, they were simply another irritation Unsettling, but not enough to alter the rhythms of everyday life for her on that Wednesday the twenty eighth of May Mouira spent the day working One colleague later recalled meeting her at a cashhing carry connected to her role at Bridvick R it. Put put an eye in there for some reason.it V. Brit Vick, sorry, sorry. He said she had been agitated by the attempted break in That evening, she returned to Queen's Drive, where her neighbor Anne Kirkwood saw her at the flat Crookwood later remembered Moira as very upbeat. Ballying she was heading out to visit her boyfriend just a short distance away. Marik Karkar, a thirty two year old Slovak national and former soldier had recently arrived in Glasgow from Liverpool. He was staying at thirty eight Queens Drive with Lucy Pet Clover. A Czech born housekeeper he had met while working in Liverpool Petlova later said that he had been heavily drinking since arriving in the city She later said that although they had slept in the same bed, she had repeatedly rejected his sexual advances Wednesday evening, twenty eighth M She said he left the flat shortly before ten o'clock to go out into the city So on that evening of the twenty eighth of may, two thousand eight, Moira Jones had been visiting her boyfriend, Paul Thompson at his flat in Cranston Hill after the pair had an argument Moira decided to head home At around eleven thirty PM, she parked her black Toyota Rv four on Queen's Drive Ab sixty yards from her front door She stepped out carrying her overnight bag and began walking stretch dark behind her building, while the surrounding tenements still held light in their upper windows Cars moved through the nearby junctions and buses passed along the main roads near where she had parked her car. Marik Harkar approached her Earlier that night, he had been drinking heavily and had told his flatmate he was going out. looking for a woman He stood about six feet, three inches tall Moira was five foot four and weighed less than nine stonone Park car moved quickly Before she could reach her building, he forced her away from the pavement steering her across Queen's drive toward the entrance to the park There was a struggle at the roadside Part of her handbag strap tore free and toiletries scattered onto the small grass island. near where she had parked her car Gripping her overnight bag, he forced her away from the roadside and tore the park entrance As they crossed into Queens Park, screams carried out through the trees and across the road The sound reached nearby flats and people passing along the street Taxi driver Frederick Graham later recalled turning to his partner and saying, quote If there has been a murder, then we have just heard it. Others heard cries too, sharp bursts of distress echoing through the darkness before falling silent again From the road, nothing could be seen clearly The distance, darkness and the trees hid what was unfolding only yards inside the park I'll be calling the police mmediately I would Yeahah, if you hadard like, you know, you can You can probably distinctively tell types of screams, you know, I there was a scream that believe in Heo It's I mean, when in doubt Call the police. Yeah. E if you're What are you doing? Go and investigate. I mean, it's a bit like foxes You know, they do a horrible like we scream, you know, how you would think, o, maybe that's a person. Is it a fox? Is it a, you know? Yeah. But yeah, it definitely distressing sounds That's right, people, if you hear something, call the police. Just call. You know, Does't matter whether you you one hundred percent know something's going on or whether you just think, o, that wasn't quite right if you gut saying, oh, that didn't sound quite right. Yeah then just find the place. Usually your instinct's right Yeah Well, near the tennis courts, Harkar forced Moira into a dense holly bush She struggled and tried to resist but he prevented her from escaping In the struggle, six buttons were torn from her blouse and fell into the leaves beneath them He held her there before forcing her onward again. pushing her deeper into the park With every step, the lights of the surrounding streets grew more distant replaced by darker paths. Trees and open ground leading further into the park Absolutely terrifying Well from the Holly busush, he forced her across the park eventually more than her three hundred meters from the roadside During the attack, she was repeatedly punched, kicked, and stamped upon terrifying. Asolutely she must have been absolutely terrified the violence moved across the grass towards the park interior far from the border in roads Although Queen's Park was surrounded by homes and traffic The deeper sections offered concealment once the paths narrowed and the darkness had thickened What happened there unfolded in a place that by day felt open and familiar But annoying became isolated Yeah, people don't realize how big that part is one hundred and forty eight acres. That's massive. Absolutely huge. and you've got trees and in the light Secluded areas. Yeah, when it's not not a lot of people are in Terrifying.razyerrifying During the assault, her clothing was forcibly removed She was pinned to the ground and raped The violence continued before Harkar compressed her neck and killed her Afterwards, he left her body face down behind a private hedge deeper inside the park She was half naked. Her belongings lay scattered nearby He robbed her of two rings and three bags containing a camera A laptop and three mobile phones. The attack had begun within sight of her own street and ended deeep inside the park. Horrendous, absolutely horrendous And not far from your home, you feel like you're safe because your home is just right there Absolutely tragic. Well, in the early hours of the twenty ninth of May park fell quiet again continued along Langside Road and Victoria Road Street lightights burned steadily around the perimeter and buses carried late passengers through the surrounding streets Nothing from outside the park marked what had happened during the night. Inside the darkness, Moira Jones lay where she had been left concealed behind the hedge in ground that residents crossed every day without knowing What had taken place there only hours earlier It's so sad where you you know, you kind of like Imagine being a dog walker and you're walking past and then You know, the next day You see that this is theyve found a body there and you think, o my god, I walked past and I didn't even spot, you know? Yeah. Just the idea of somebody being left. out you know, in the open and in a public park like that where a lot of people dead but it would be like a sl nice. they won't be able to be seen, you know, they won't be able to find the body. U quite easily sad, very sad At around nine forty five AM on Thursday, the twenty ninth of May. A park ranger walking through Queens Park discovered her body behind that private hedge Emergency services were called. But she was already dead In daylight, the shape of the previous night began to emerge A woman abducted within yards of her home forced across a public park and subjected to a brutal attack. before being raped, robbed and murdered in one of Glasgow's most familiar Green spaces. The police moved quickly to secure Queen's Park Detective Chief Inspector Derek Robertson teend did the same And his first decision set the tone for everything that followed. T the park down Not just the immediate discovery point, but the entire perimeter Officers sealed the park as what had been open public space for only hours earlier. was transformed into a vast forensic scene controlled and methodically examined for even the smallest trace of evidence Inside the cordon, the scene appeared scattered Moira lay where the Ranger had discovered her And nearby were business papers and toiletries Small fragments of an orordinary routine suddenly interrupted An incident room was established at Cathcar Police Station to coordinate the investigation. while an incident caravan positioned at the park gates controlled the flow of officers, forensic teams, and evidence moving in and out of the scene O one immediate challenge confronted investigators The woman had no identification with her Officers began checking missing person reports and contacting local hotels to see if any guests had failed to return overnight The first meaningful clue came from paperwork recovered near her body reccently dated invoices and documents bearing a name Detectives traced the businesses linked to those papers and contacted them cautiously presenting their inquiries as a possible fraud investigation They wanted confirmation before revealing the true nature of what had happened Yeah, because you never know body involved. someomeone involved with her work or something like that. that was a smart move. Stay hush, hush until, you know, Yeah, smart move The paperwork pointed investigators to Moira Jones who lived on Queen's Drive overlooking the park itself Officers attended the flat but found no one home After forcing entry to confirm their suspicions, they discovered family photographs inside. So now they had confirmation that the identity was certain that it was Moira been attacked only yards from her place that she called home Absolutely sad. You know, I I It's just blowing your mind. I can tell like it's just you don't know what to because you're so close to home, you're right there. Yeah. and your home, everybody's home is their little safe place, you know, their little And it's just you're so close this Horrible tragic In a terrifying instant. happens It's just shocking. abbsolutely shocking But with her identity confirmed, detectives began reconstructing what had happened inside the park inststead of treating it as one single crime scene Investigators realized that they were dealing with several connected locations spread across the ground. Forensic teams logged scattered belongings and documented the surrounding vegetation as the wider scene was examined. spepecialists was brought in, including a botanist and an entomologist in case insect activity or trace evidence could help narrow the timeline of the attack. Even the bushes and shrubs became part of the investigation Lead forensic scientist, Carol Rogers later explained The vegetation often traps evidence fibers fragments of clothing and tiny traces of skin. As teams examined the park They discover small amounts of blood and strands of hair on the bushes, on the opposite side from where the body had been left It suggested the violence had not occurred in one place Instead, it appeared the attack had moved through different parts of the park before ending near the hedge This like I say every week. A forensics Forensic science is amazing What they can do Yeah, let's not just the p us up vegetation, what soil can tell you? about a crime scene it's just amazing. Well, it's just like our previous episode with Hunntley You know, they they try it all the chalk and and dirt and stuff that was on that track and that was on his tires and you're like Well, I think we put two and two together. I think this guy was there, you know, it's not just I think he was there. We know because this soil is right there. And I think with that case, I think that was the only place that he could have got it from. Yeah in that location.. So it's just amazing Well, at the Holly busush near the tennis courts, investigators focused on another key location A witness had reported seeing a couple in that area during the night When officers searched the bush, they recovered more than torn buttons from Mira's blouse They also found a cigarette butt In time, forensic testing would show that it carried the same DNA profile recovered from Moira's body. Another trace linking the unknown attacker to one of the key locations in the park The forensic examination also clarified the physical evidence could and could not support Carol Rogers reported that there was no semen externally on Mooyiaa's body. indicating that when intercourse occurred She was either unconscious or dead time and that she did not move afterwards A postmortem examination documented sixty five separate injuries Later reporting on the postmortem evidence suggested the ordeal lasted more than two hours Intimate swabs taken during the examination produced a full male DNA profile When that DNA profile was run through the national database, Unfortunately, no match appeared. The investigation widened immediately Officers conducted extensive door to door inquiries across the neighborhood, gathering more than three thousand witness statements and around two hundred and fifty voluntary DNA samples Detectives also examined the backgrounds of known offenders living nearby Records showed twenty two registered sex offenders in the surrounding area All of him were assessed as part of the inquiry Specialists CCTV team began collecting and reviewing hours of footage from cameras across Glasgow' Southide desespite the scale of the search The man responsible remained unidentified By the second of June, detectives still had no name attached to the DNA profile Moira's family agreed to a public appeal for information. Investigators also refined what they called the strike scene place where Moira had first encountered her attacker on a grass Island along Queen's Drive Officers had recovered part of that torn handbag strap and scattered toiletries. The spot lay only ten yards from where Mira had parked her Toyota ra four shortly before past eleven that night CCTV soon began filling in parts of the timeline Footage from a first bus travelling along Langside Road captured two figures near the park boundary around eleven thirty PM The video was very grainy but clear enough to show the contrast between them One figure was tall, wearing light trousers and white footwear. carrying a square shaped object under one arm Other appeared smaller, dressed in darker clothing with longer hair A detective later described the taller figure as Lan and over the smaller one just like the Forensic scientists and everything, the CCTV peopleeople that go through all that and have to try to find exactly where and exactly who and best That's a lot of work. It is. Yeah. I did I think they've upgraded though. I watched a documentary the other day on a case and they can now put in to a computer like somebody's face and then it kind of tries to facial recognition. Yeah It facial recognition at the software will recognize where these people have been on this sort of camera settings of around Lestern area. Yeah Yeah and it kind of like m helps to make the timeline of where this person was, at what time and where, you know, Pretty amazing. kind of like shortens down the time while sitting there. It's a long ways from the old Giny. Yeah. We back to the you know, go through. U, you know, CCTV footage. and ten sort of three weeks to go through, you know, thousands of different angles and and stuff so Well, Other cameras appeaar to capture the suspect leaving the park hours later Footage placed a lone man near Queen's Baptist Queens Park Baptist Church on Balvicar Drive around two fifteen AM Additional clips showed the same individual discarding a laptop and later examining the back of his hand while walking along Nithdale Road Detectives noted the man's distinctive swagger and began comparing his movements across multiple cameras Even with these fragments of footage, however, His identity still remains unknown That's u you know, definitely would be a suspect that they would be looking at because o yeah, obviously You know, there's not going to be many people walking about or leaving a park area where thisit two happened. Yeah Yeah sort of to to gone to And then and then usually with like how people walk. Yeah. you got a gate, you have a certain gate that you walk and a certain way you walk And they could be like, Yp, that's him. And they match sort of walking on the same, you know, wearing the same clothes. That's so cool. Same height. yeah, it's amazing Detective Chief Inspector Robertson later described the suspect as A ghost He appeared briefly on cameras and then vanished Investigators began widening their search beyond the immediate homicide inquiry Research into previous sexual attacks in the area identified a recent unsolved case near the new Victoria Infirmary. discovery prompted additional door to door inquiries and intelligence checks. Officers looked for any connection that might reveal the identity of the man in the footage. Then on the twelfth of June, the investigation took a turn Robertson was reviewing CCTV footage at Cathcar Police Station When an officer approached with urgent news, A witness had been identified An Eastern European woman living in a nearby bedsit For the first time The anonymous DNA profile investigators had labeled male one might finally be connected to a real person Wow. It's great that a witness come forward Um, well, the witness was Lucy Petchlova The Czechborn housekeeper living at thirty eight Queens Strive She told officers that she had met a Slovak man named Mark Harkar while working in Liverpool According to her, he arrived in Glasgow on the eighteenth of May and stayed with her in the bedset. During those days, he drank heavily and spent long hours watching pornography On the evening of the twenty eighth of May Petlova said Harkar left the flat shortly before ten o'clock to go out drinking. Also when he said he's out going out looking for a woman Yeah He returned around three fifteen AM the following morning A that night, she noticed a change in his behavior. She said he appeaars scared of something And then at dawn on the first of June He suddenly left the flat and fled Scotland without collecting his belongings Petlova gathered his possessions into a bag and placed them in a cupboard Hm sounds like he's u he's getting a bit paranoid there he's going to be He's like, uh oh I need to get out of it. Yeah, getet away from the area Well those belongings were sent for a forensic examination Among them was a black and white duvet associated with Harkar Forensic scientist Carol Rogers examined two stains recovered from the fabric Lovely In the early hours of the fourteenth of June, she contacted Detective Chief Inspector Robertson with the results. DNA profile recovered from Mira Jones ed the samples linked to Marak Harkar Further testing confirmed that seemen recovered internally from Mira. also matched his DNA profile. Got him Got him him. God get this man off the streets. It's good that thatet they got to find him now because there's Petchlover. She didn'trow just throw the stuff away. Yeah. She kept it I mean, most of the time, I mean, you kind of wouldn't in that scenario. I mean, it's not like they had an argument and it's like throwing this stuff out he's obviously just up and gone. She's thinking, Oh, maybe Ill just need to store this. he might be back, you know. So I think probably why she did keep it because thinking that he may return Well, it's a dn good it's a damn good thing she did. Yeah, definitely. and great that she went to the place and said hang on this this man's, you know behavi put two and two together. somethingomet's not quite right here. Well, three days later, on the seventeenth of June Prosecutors obtained a European arrest warrant from Edinburgh Sheriff Court The following day, Slavic police located Harkar at a house in the village of Nleepikovo Hopefully I got that right. Sorry. Officers described him as calm and cooperative when he was detained During the search, they seized a black leather jacket identification documents and mobile phone with charger battery and SIM card The phone's back covering was missing battery held in place with tape Well forensic testing later revealed tiny specks of Mira Jones' blood on the leather jacket During the search of property, officers also found a bag containing a Nikong digital camera that had belonged to Moira The evidence now connected Harkar not only to the park but also to property taken during the attack Yp, he kept all that stuff crazy So on the fourth of July Parkar appeared before a prosecutor at a detention center in Slovakia He agreed to extradition telling officials he wanted the matter explained because he was innocent Twelve days later, on the sixteenth of july two thousand eight, he was flown from Bratislava to Manchester Airport under police escort then transferred to Barliny prison in Glasgow to await his first appearance in court. So he done the offski and went back to Slovakia But now he's saying he's innocent. That doesn't seem like innocent behavior.? Yeah. Well, how did you get these items that belong to this murdered raped murdered woman Well, the following day, Marrick Harcast stood in the dock at Glasgow Sheriff Court He was formmerally charged with the abduction, rape, robbery, and murder of Moira Jones as well as attempting to defeat the Es of justustice by fleeing Scotland after the attack He was remanded in custody What had begun with a sealed park and an unnamed DNA profile had, step by step led investigators across forensic evidence. Witness testimony and international cooperation to a suspect now facing trial Meric Karar's trial began on the twelfth of march in two thousand nine at the High Court in Glasgow The case was heard before Lord Bracadale with the Lord advocate, Eilish Anngiolini, QC Sorry, I just think of like the sopranos, N Giolini. Well, he was leading the prosecution and Paul McBride QC appearing for the defense Because Harkar was Slavic, interpreters translated the proceedings in real time from a booth inside the courtroom. A jury of nine men and six women took their seats Parkhard denied every charge against him and lodged two special defenses Incrimination, blaming others and an alibi At the start of the trial, a joint minute of agreed evidence was read to the jury A formal statement outlin in facts both sides accepted. fromrom there the crown began building its case Prosecutors told jurors that they would see a chain of evidence linking Harker to the abduction, rape, robbery, and murder of Moira Jones It was not just one piece of proof alone They said, convergence of many strands, forensic science CCTV footage and witness testimony forming a single narrative. So one of those strands came from Lucy Petlova. the one he was staying with. She told the Corps on the night of the twentyentieth of May, he had left the flat after drinking heavily telling her he was going out looking for a woman. Prosecutors asked the jury to consider that statement alongside the other evidence in the case Not an isolated remark But as part of a sequence of events that began before Moira had ever reached her front door Well jurors then heard the forensic evidence Semen recovered from internal samples taken from Mira Jones. matched Harkal's DNA profile. In court, the probability of the DNA belonging to someone else was described as a billion to one Gness grace. possible Forensic testing also revealed that blood found on a black leather jacket seized during Harkar's arrest matched Mira's DNA. Prosecutors argued that these findings placed him in direct physical contact with her during the prolonged and violent assault inside Queen's Park Further scientific evidence is followed The cigarette butt recovered near the Hollybush where Moira had been forced during the attack contained DNA matching Hark Kar's profile. stains on a black and white duvet linked to him were also examined in the laboratory Prosecutors told the jury that these results connected several locations. bed sit and the accused himself reinforcing the crown's position that the evidence formed a continuous chain pointoing in one direction. Yeah, very much so. CCTV footage shown in court helped establish Harkar's movements as well across the city that night Jvers watch recordings from pubs and off licenses in Glasgow's Southide as well as footage from a shop on Argal Street where a sales assistant identified him purchasing a pair of white added As trainers The most unsettling footage though came from a first bus travelling along Langside Road shortly before midnight. It showed the two figures walking beside the park, one tall, one smaller. taller appearing to lean over the other Prosecutors argued that when the CCTV timeline was combined with the forensic evidence, the case against Harkar became overwhelming DNA, blood traces, recorded movements, and Harkar's sudden departure from Scotland were presented as parts of a single evidentiary story Property taken from Mira during the attack, including the Nikon digital camera later recovered in Slovakia strengthenens the robbery element of the indictment Crown's position was that each piece of evidence supported the others The defense challenged that interpretation Harkar's lawyers advanced the special defense of incrimination, suggesting that others could have been responsible for the attack while also maintaining that Harkar himself been elsewhere at the relevant time Part of the incrimination defense. ar's lawyers pointed to Jason Mulhn convicted sex offender and to other possible suspects, arguing that the investigation had to be tested against other lines of inquiry Jurors heard that a former girlfriend had once claimed Moharn admitted the murder of the lassie in the park though he denied ever making such a confession Mulharon appeared in the court as a witness and rejected any involvement in Moira's death Defense counsel questioned the police about other investigative leads and whether Individuals with relevant criminal histories had been examined thoroughly enough The defense reminded the jury that suspicion alone was not proof The responsibility for proving the case beyond a reasonable doubt rested entirely with the crowd Well I think they've done their job. I mean, there's enough evidence to. I think this I eers. I think the defense had a hard job. They had a hard job with this le But in order to, I think what they were trying to do is like, did you investigate anyone else or did you home in on this one person? you know? It's So yeah, we did but this guy had bl Yeah. had blood on his jackie, he had his stuff or had her stuff on him. You know, like What are you talking about? His DNA matches Why would you search for? I mean, obviously there any leads that come up, you're going you're going to look into them. but If you've already got this sourced evidence and DNA profile and stuff like that. It's going to go one place. That's it. I think the defense Yeah, they had to try They had to do something. Well, the jury also heard evidence about Harkar's movements in the days after the murder So between the first and the eighteenth of june of two thousand eight He traveled first to the Czech Republic and then on to Slovakia Prosecutors argued that leaving Scotland so soon after the killing while still in possession of items taken from Moira demonstrated an attempt to defeat the ends of justustice The defense countered that travel alone. not establish guilt traveling with stolen items. V'sery true. but if, you know, you've got stolen items that this person who has been found I mean, maybe they were saying, o, he just happened upon her and he was a bit drunk and he stole her stuff, you know It's very flimsy, but they've got to put something out there. I'm not saying that's what they did. is a possibility, but I don't believe that's how it went down. So Well, after a trial lasting almost three weeks, the case was placed in the hands of the jury They were retired to consider their verdict Just over an hour later, they returned to the courtroom That wasn't long at all. No, just an hour. Yeah, They had a coffee and a biscuit. Read through the thing and then it's like, yeah. signed it, yeah He was found guilty of the abduction, assault, rape, robbery, and murder He was also convicted of attempting to defeat the Es of justustice by fleeing Scotland after the attack. During the sentencing, the court was told that Harker had thirteen previous criminal convictions for involving violence Lord Bracadell imposed the mandatory sentence for murder Life imprisonment You fix the punishment part. the minimum period before parole could be even considered twenty five years dated to the date of Harkar's arrest on the eighteenth of june two thousand eight. In delivering his sentence, Lord Bracadale told the court that the murder of Moira Jones had shocked the nation He described the attack as displaying, quote, a level of wickedness very rarely encountered. The judge said Moira Jones had been abducted into the park, held captive in a holly bush then subjected to extensive injuries before being raped and murdered spoke of the devastating effect her death had on her family friendriends and colleagues Lord Racadale also recommended that Harkar to be deported after his release Yeah I agree get him out of here. Y Weays. You know, we have enough of our own criminals to be fair and, you know, If he wasn't born here and he's come over here and committed crimes send him home. I mean that's my view. I mean, I'm here. Yes My husband here is American. I would expect if I did a crime. I would report you and I would tell them to send you back to America. If not, I would send you back. Yeah, that's why I'm here as a guest. I'm here, you know And I need to abide by the laws of the land. And if I don't It should expected. You know, it should be expected one hundred percent that You know, a foreign born person comes over I mean we don't know his situation whether he had citizenship or whatever, but even still revoke that citizenship and send him to his birthplace In my opinion Outside the court buildilding, Moiria's mother, Be Jones, addressed reporters. She describes her daughter as quote Precious go and said her life had been stolen. in the most depraved way The trial had reached its conclusion, a verdict had been delivered and a sentence imposed Yet, for the people who loved Moira The legal process could never restore what had been lost. what remained was a life remembered and an absence that could never be filled. She was a very beautiful woman. Absolutely Moira Jones was laid to rest on the ninth of august two thousand eight near the family home in Weston and Staffordshire. The rain was torrential that day as mourners gathered to say goodbye A lone piper led the procession from the church toward the graves site the sound carrying through the wet air Her father, brother partner and uncles carried the coffin In the months before the trial, Mira's family tralled between Staffordshire and Glasgow as the legal process unfolded Court hearings, meetings with prosecutors. Long days waiting in unfamiliar corridors. The routine became exhausting and uncertain Steady herself. They began writing Diary became a way of holding on to memories while trying to make sense of what happened We were in hell on earth, she wrote death certificate listed only Head and neck injuries. A clinical phrase that seemed impossibly small beside the life that they had lost Beyond the Jones family, the murder left a deep mark on Glasgow's south side. Queens Park, usually open to walkers, runners, and dog owners, had been closed for more than two weeks after Moira's body was discovered When it reopened on the twelfth of june, two thousand eight, People returned cautiously Ective superintendent, Derk Robertson later acknowledged that the killing of a woman in a park had caused, quote, a great deal of fear and concern particularly among women who use the area regularly Yeah, right H Harkars sentencecing Lord Brucadale said that the murder shock the nation Part of that shock came from where the crime had happened Not in the some remote place, but in a park surrounded by homes, shops and busy roads Witnesses had heard screams that night from inside the trees the knowledge that Som violence had unfolded in a familiar place lingered long after the police cordons were removed In the years that followed, B and Hugh Jones chose to channel their grief into something practical They established the Mira Fund a charity created to support families who had lost loved ones through murder or other traumatic circumstances The organization offers grants to help with funeral costs traravel expenses, clothing for attending court access to counseling Over time, the charity had assisted more than a thousand families across the United Kingdom provroviding help during moments when many feel almost alone. That's really awesome. It's brilliant. somethinghing good to come out of something so bad and tragic The charity's work is also visible each year in Queen's Parks itself The annual Moira run, a five kilometer event organised by the fund, brings hundreds of people back to the same ground where Moira was found B and H return every year Be has explained that she refuses to let the park be remembered only for the crime that happened there For a few hours each summer, the paths once marked by police tape and forensic tents become a place of remembrance moveoment and shared presence The campaign for betteretter support for bereaved families continuues long after the trial ended In twenty twenty three, Victim supportupp S Golen announced a one point two million pound homicide service as part of a wider funding package The program introduced dedicated casewkers to guide families through investigations. Court proceedings and the aftermath of violent loss. B. Jones had long argued that structure support was essential When the announcement came She said, such help could help enormously for families facing the same ordeal Yeah, very much so Oh, meanwhile Marik Harar's sentence continued. Kar later served part of his sentence in Slovakia under prisoner transfer arrangements. His conviction in Scotland remained unchanged, along with the life sentence and the minimum twenty five year punishment p imposed by the High Court in Glasgow He was transferred to Slovakia Uh also, unfortunately, u Her father Q He passed away. suddenly on the sixteenth of april twenty twenty five. rest in paste Young sir If you believe in Heaven and stuff, he'll be with his daughter wherever they are In Glasgow, Moi Ra Jones is still remembered by name and by place. A small memorial stone marks the spot in Queens Park where her body was discovered B. Jones continues to speak publicly about Moira's life the work She and Hugh had built in her memory in the final pages of her diary Be wrote words that capture the scale of her grief. I want to scream Moira So loudly that it reverberates around the world For those who love her That echo never truly fades. Beautiful That was the story of the Queens Park murder of Mira Jones There wild That's such a horrific case. Yeah. Very, very. But from the, you know, what we've researched on Mira she such a lovely woman and very beautiful, very, you know a stunning on and looking lady Um was a beautiful heart. veryy hard work in and how did her a mountain of people that loved her and cared for her. Definitely Well, if you value the work that we do here in the archivive in telling these stories, cases, bringing up people to should never be forgot Please follow the show and leave us a five star rating. It really helps these stories reach further and keeps our archive going Everything you need, socials, disiscord And soon, Patreon. Heay. That's all linked in the description below. But until next week stay safe guys and stay curious. Bye bye