Man 'felt sick' as he dug grave

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A man accused of murdering an 87-year-old woman told police he felt sick as he dug her grave, a court has heard.

In a police video shown at the High Court in Edinburgh, John Lawson said it was the worst thing he had ever done.

The 48-year-old said it had been a spur of the moment decision to get into Dolina Maclean's car last May.

Mr Lawson, who denies murder, claims that she collapsed and died after he made her get out of the car following a drive along country roads.

'Like a dog'

When Det Con Calum Christie asked the accused about his feelings during the burial, Mr Lawson told him: "Sick, definitely sick. It was the worst thing I have ever done. Just a nightmare, the whole process."

Just before the questioning stopped, minutes before midnight, Det Con James Thomson said to Mr Lawson: "You buried her the way you would bury a dog that died."

Mr Lawson agreed: "It was disgraceful."

But throughout the hours of questioning he kept insisting: "I did not murder her."

Miss Maclean's body was found in woods near Dunning

Mr Lawson told the officers: "I know I am going down for a long time for this but I am not going down for a murder as well. I know I am going to get a big stretch."

He said that he needed a car to visit his son. His own clapped-out Volvo was low on fuel and he had no money. He wanted Miss Maclean's Astra.

"It was a spur of the moment thing. I just thought I needed her car today," he told the officers.

He admitted dumping Miss Maclean in woods when she started to become ill.

"I panicked," he said. "I thought, 'This is my fault, definitely' so I just opened the gate and I started pulling her into the wood."

He claimed he tried to give first aid, but had not attempted to get help or call an ambulance.

After leaving Miss Maclean's body, he returned to Perth, put on a clean shirt and went to the local job centre, he said.

Woodland path

Mr Lawson is accused of getting into Miss Maclean's car in a supermarket car park in Crieff Road, Perth, on 30 May last year and demanding that she drive off, placing her in a state of "fear, alarm and distress".

The charge alleges that the accused later ordered her to swap seats and drove the car to a farm lane in Moneydie in Perthshire.

It is alleged he assaulted the pensioner and tried to force her to walk up a woodland path "for a purpose unknown".

Mr Lawson is then said to have dragged and carried her to Saddlebrae Wood, where he abandoned the unconscious or dead woman.

The indictment accuses Mr Lawson of failing to get medical help and having a "wicked and reckless disregard" for the consequences of his actions.

A second charge alleges that between 30 May and 6 June Mr Lawson returned to the wood, where he picked up her body and drove to Knowehead Woodland, near Dunning.

It is claimed that he then put the pensioner's body into a drainage ditch and hid it with soil and other debris.