Margaret Fleming, a vulnerable 19-year-old who was murdered in a £182,000 benefits scam was ‘invisible’, a report has found.
Ms Fleming, a young woman who suffered from learning difficulties, was callously killed by her ‘carers’ Edward Cairney and Avril Jones in Inverclyde, Scotland, some time between December 1999 and January 2000.
The couple were able to hide their crime for 17 years before being brought to justice in July 2019.
Now, a significant case review by Inverclyde Council led by Professor Jean MacLellan has warned that what happened to Margaret could happen in any part of Scotland.
Prof MacLellan said there was a ‘palpable sense of sadness and guilt’ over how Margaret died and that she was ‘effectively invisible’ at the time of her death.
The review asked local authorities to consider taking steps to ensure people with learning difficulties and autism were ‘not hidden in plain sight’.
The report comes just days after Cairney died aged 82 following an illness while being held in HMP Edinburgh.
Margaret Fleming, a vulnerable 19-year-old who was murdered in a £182,000 benefits scam was ‘invisible’, a report has found
Ms Fleming was callously killed by her ‘carers’ Edward Cairney and Avril Jones in Inverclyde, Scotland, some time between December 1999 and January 2000
He and his partner Avril Jones, 63, were handed life sentences in 2019 for killing Ms Fleming some time between December 1999 and January 2000.
They were supposed to be caring for the 19-year-old, who had learning difficulties and lived with them in Inverkip, Renfrewshire.
Jones claimed £182,000 in benefits by pretending the young woman was still alive.
The couple refused to reveal what they did with her body and, despite digging up the grounds of their property in Inverkip, police were unable to locate Ms Fleming’s remains.
With Cairney now dead, Jones is the only person who knows where to find the body.
Margaret was left isolated following the deaths of her father and paternal grandparents, and difficulties her mother faced keeping in contact with her
The review said the home owned by Cairney and Jones in Inverkip added to her isolation.
Her death was only exposed after suspicions were raised around a benefits claim made on her behalf by Jones in October 2016.
The case review has made a number of recommendations on how the authorities monitor people with learning disabilities.
It said: ‘What happened in Inverclyde could happen in any part of Scotland and so the work undertaken, findings and recommendations should be widely disseminated to improve understanding and to instigate necessary changes.
‘It is recommended, therefore, that all chief officer groups consider commissioning an analysis of numbers of people with learning disabilities and autism in their area to ensure that all individuals are known and are not hidden in plain sight.
‘This will require sensitive and proportionate data sharing.’
The report said Inverclyde Council should consider remembering Margaret in a way that was respectful to her family who were praised for their ‘substantial contribution’ to the review.
Margaret went to live in Inverkip with Cairney and Jones, who had been friends of her father, after he died in 1995.
Jones continued to claim £182,000 in benefits until 2016 when it was finally established that Margaret was missing.
Her disappearance was so mysterious that at one point police asked Cairney and Jones if she even existed.
Photos show the disgusting state of the home where the couple lived in Western Scotland
This is one of the few photos of the couple with Miss Fleming before they killed her
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Alex Davidson, chair of the Adult Protection Committee, said: ‘The death of Margaret Fleming and the tragic events that led to her death shook not only the local community but the whole of Scotland.
‘This wide-ranging and in-depth review provides learning for all agencies involved in Margaret’s life to ensure lessons are learned from the circumstances that led to her death and, as the title says, honours and remembers Margaret.
‘It is now up to each agency to consider the findings and take those forward but what is clear to me from the review is that agencies need to talk across the fence to each other when it comes to partnership working and information sharing to ensure vulnerable people are seen in person while respecting their right to privacy.
‘See something, say something. If something doesn’t seem right, it probably isn’t and there should be a multi-agency response to that.’
Cairney and Jones, who called themselves carers, devised a web of lies to claim she was still alive, so they could cash in on her benefits.
But their deceit unravelled after council staff raised the alarm about a scam in which Jones fleeced vulnerable Miss Fleming out of nearly £200,000.
Speaking after the couple were convicted, Detective Superintendent Paul Livingstone, who led the inquiry, said Miss Fleming’s last days must have been a ‘living hell’.
During the time Miss Fleming was missing, ex-marine engineer Cairney made a series of bizarre allegations, including a claim that Miss Fleming had become a gang master and was a drug dealer.
This was despite her having learning difficulties and could not live on her own.
Meanwhile, Jones continued to rake in £182,000 of benefits for her.
A missing person’s inquiry in 2016 later turned into a huge murder probe, leading to the couple being arrested for killing Miss Fleming.
Cairney and Jones continued to protest their innocence during a seven-week trial at the High Court in Glasgow. But prosecutors told jurors that the pair had been motivated by ‘greed, arrogance and lies’.
