Karen McGregor

Karen McGregor was found dead in a car park at the Scottish Exhibition Centre in Glasgow.

Her husband was tried for her murder but a verdict of not proven was returned. He was arrested about six months after her body was found.

She had been strangled and her naked body, which had been hidden in bushes at the car park, was not found for several days after her murder. When she was found she had been wearing the remains of a choker round her neck and tights that were found to have had £73 in the left sole. Another part of her choker was found about 50 yards away from where her body was found, and it was said that she had been dragged from that location to the bushes where she was later found.

It was noted that the place that part of her choker was found was only about 10 yards from the River Clyde and that she could have readily been thrown into the river.

At her husband’s trial it was heard that Karen McGregor was a prostitute and it was claimed that her husband had killed her after sending her out to get money for drugs and that he had then staged it so that it looked like she had been murdered by a client.

They had lived together in Maukinfauld Road, Tollcross, Glasgow.

Her husband was said to have assaulted her at their home on 18 April 1993 by punching her, striking her with a hard object and compressing her throat following a disagreement when she had gone out the day before on 17 April 1993  to get some money for drugs by working as a prostitute.

As part of the evidence against the husband, he was said to have said at her graveside, 'I'm sorry, I didn't mean it', which the prosecution had said meant that he was sorry for killing her.

It was heard that the case against the husband was based around the evidence of a 21-year-old drug addict who said that he had been to Karen McGregor's house and saw Karen McGregor there dead. He said that he didn't see the husband but said that he did see Karen McGregor lying dead on a couch with facial injuries. However, the defence noted that without the man's evidence there was no case against the husband.

The husbands defence noted that Karen McGregor's murder was very similar to the murder of Diane McInally who was murdered in 1991 and whose murder is also unsolved. They asked why her husband, who was described as a drug addict, would try to make his wife's murder look similar and would drag her into some bushes when he could have dumped her in the River Clyde and why he would have left £73 in her tights.

Karen McGregor had had two children.