Husband ruled legally dead

Mrs Ismail made an unusual application to the court

The wife of a man who disappeared less than two years ago in the Highlands has won the right to have him declared dead.

Khaliel Ismail, 40, from Inverlochy, was last seen after he left a bothy on the shores of Loch Shiel just before Christmas 2000.

His wife Fiona took the unusual step of seeking to have him declared dead ahead of the minimum statutory period of seven years

The mother of two said she was struggling to pay the bills and wanted to unlock money she would be entitled to.

The statutory requirement is that someone has to be missing for seven years before they are pronounced dead

Margaret Ross, law lecturer

Mr Ismail, a North Sea oil worker, disappeared after leaving a bothy in the middle of the night while on a deer cull.

A series of search efforts, including a three-day dive operation of Loch Shiel, failed to find any trace of him.

It was concluded that Mr Ismail probably slipped into the River Glenaladale, which was in spate at the time, and he was carried into Loch Shiel.

Mrs Ismail had lodged a civil action at Fort William Sheriff Court last August, requesting that the seven-year period be waived and her husband be officially declared dead.

She had told the court: "My husband earned a substantial income working off-shore and I cannot alone afford the continuing financial commitments."

'Overwhelming evidence'

The action also named her daughter Ruksane, 15, and Iman, 13, along with Mr Ismail's insurers Standard Life Assurance.

A similar action was launched at Fort William by Jim Ballard, husband of well-known climber Alison Hargreaves, who perished in a climbing accident in the Himalayas in 1995, leaving two children.

It was two years before she was declared dead.

Senior law lecturer Margaret Ross, of the University of Aberdeen, said such applications were unusual.

She said: "The statutory requirement is that someone has to be missing for seven years before they are pronounced dead.

"It may be that there is overwhelming evidence that someone died rather than went missing.

"These actions have tended to happen in the past where people were lost at sea and their bodies not recovered, or where people have disappeared and their clothes were found on the shore.

"They tend to be successful and are rarely contested."