Murder accused extradited

Beggs was flown into Edinburgh Airport

The man accused of murdering and dismembering teenager Barry Wallace has been extradited to Scotland.

William Beggs, 37, was brought from the Netherlands to Edinburgh Airport under police escort using the air transport service currently operating for the Lockerbie trial.

A warrant was issued for Beggs' arrest in December 1999 following the murder of 18-year-old Mr Wallace.

Mr Beggs, from Kilmarnock, in Ayrshire, had opposed extradition in the Dutch legal system since then.

Barry Wallace went missing in December 1999

Supermarket worker Mr Wallace, also from Kilmarnock, was last seen alive on 5 December 1999.

His severed limbs were found by police divers on a training exercise in Loch Lomond shortly after his disappearance and his head was discovered by a woman walking her dog on Barassie Beach, near Troon.

The Court of Justice in The Hague last week refused an application for an injunction to block the extradition of Mr Beggs.

It was his final appeal against the decision of Dutch justice minister Benk Korthals that he should be sent back to the UK.

The minister upheld a decision by the Supreme Court of the Netherlands to quash Mr Beggs' original appeal against extradition after it was granted by judges in Amsterdam in April last year.

Lawyers for Mr Beggs have argued throughout the series of hearings that "negative" media coverage at the time of Mr Wallace's death would prejudice his chances of receiving a fair trial.

Ongoing trials

However, court president Albert van Delden rejected the arguments that the right to a fair trial, as protected by the European Convention on Human Rights, had been violated.

He concluded that contempt of court legislation offered Mr Beggs sufficient protection.

Mr van Delden added that he had rejected the application for an injunction in part because a petition by Beggs' lawyers to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg could not be traced.

Mr Beggs, who is originally from Northern Ireland, was already in Holland by the time he was wanted on allegations of abduction, murder and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

He had been held in custody in the De Schans remand centre in Amsterdam since handing himself in to police in the city a few days after Christmas 1999.

He was expected to be held in police cells at Kilmarnock and appear at the town's sheriff court on Wednesday.