'Totsie' appeal man set for bail

The appeal will be heard in Edinburgh

A man is set to be released from prison after spending 18 years claiming he did not commit an infamous murder in the Highlands.

George McPhee was jailed for life in 1985 for the killing of Elizabeth "Totsie" Sutherland at her home in Culbokie, Ross-shire, the previous year.

McPhee's case has been investigated by the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC), which referred it to judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh.

On Wednesday, Lord Cullen said the court was "minded to grant" McPhee interim liberation pending a full hearing of the appeal and continued the application for bail overnight to check details of his proposed address.

His counsel told the court that new evidence had been uncovered which undermined "all the main planks of the Crown case".

McPhee, 48, insists he was denied the right to a fair trial and that there is reason to doubt the credibility and reliability of evidence given by a senior detective.

Discovered by daughter

Other evidence raises questions about the testimony of key witnesses who helped to secure his conviction by a majority verdict at the High Court in Inverness, it is claimed.

Mrs Sutherland, a mother-of-two, known as "Totsie" because she was only 4ft 9ins tall, was repeatedly stabbed in the chest and had her throat cut.

Her body was discovered by her 10-year-old daughter when she returned from school.

McPhee had been brought up a few miles from the scene but was living in England at the time of the murder.

The full appeal hearing is not expected to take place for at least six months.

McPhee's counsel Margaret Scott QC said that while he had a record for dishonesty, he did not have previous convictions for violence.

He presented "no danger to the public", she told the court.