Zoe Nelson

By 28 May several witness reports had been received by the police. One sighting of Nelson, at 5.15pm, reported that she had been with a man who was "very drunk" and was being violent towards her, "punching her on the head". Another witness said he saw Nelson walk past his garden in Newmains in the company of a man with a tattooed face. A third witness had seen Nelson and a man of similar appearance in Newmains, and said: "He just looked angry," punching a lamp post as he walked past and saying he was going to "kill some cunt tonight." One witness said he had overheard the man, who was "angry and agitated," saying that he would "end up killing someone tonight." Another witness heard him tell Nelson: "This is all your fucking fault" while pointing angrily in her face. A fourteen-year-old girl also saw the pair together "boozing behind Newmains Asda." She said he was bare-chested and sunburnt and told her his name was "Rab Bayne" and had "asked me to rate his body, like out of ten." She described how the pair were drinking alcohol that they claimed was stolen – the male drinking tequila and Nelson drinking vodka. A passer-by reported seeing Nelson with a man with a facial tattoo outside the Scotmid store in Newmains, where she was rubbing suntan lotion into his sunburned back which was "red as a lobster". He said: "She didn't look too happy. I thought it was a boyfriend-girlfriend thing. They must have got something in the shop, sun tan lotion, because as they were walking away the girl was rubbing something onto his shoulders." A shirtless, sunburned man with a tattooed face was also seen "wandering aimlessly" in Cambusnethan on the evening of 22 May, attracting the attention of a family who had gathered to watch the 2010 UEFA Champions League Final on television. One of the group said: "What attracted attention was his hairstyle and his back was very, very red from the sun." Police also received information that Robert Bayne had telephoned an acquaintance on 24 May and asked for help to "batter" the last people to see Nelson. Crucially, the call was made before the body had been identified. The witness said: "He asked me to help him batter [Ross Hemphill and Stewart Campbell, who he claimed were the last to see Zoe]. I don't know why he said this because we didn't know it was Zoe who was found."

Bayne then appealed against his sentence, claiming the 20-year minimum term was excessive. The appeal was dismissed on 6 January 2012 by Lord Reed and Lord Brodie at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh.

The trial was held over fifteen days at the High Court, Edinburgh in March 2011. Bayne was charged "that in a wooded area near Branchalfield Drive, Cambusnethan, [he] assaulted Zoe Nelson, of Newmains, striking her on the body with a knife, repeatedly hitting her, putting a plastic sheet over her head to restrict her breathing and by means unknown injuring her and setting her on fire." He was further charged with attempting to defeat the ends of justice in that he washed or disposed of clothes he had worn at the time of the alleged murder, that he disposed of Nelson's mobile phone and that he threatened her sister Laura Anne. Bayne elected not to take the witness stand during the trial.

On 25 March 2011 the jury of seven men and seven women returned unanimous verdicts of guilty on both charges. As the verdicts were read out, handcuffed Bayne fought with security guards and police officers, headbutting one of them, and shouted abuse at Laura Anne Nelson: "You have fucking got me for fuck all. You're a fucking wee cow. You're dead." He was forced to the ground in the dock as the judge Lady Dorrian QC left the bench and ordered the public to be cleared from the court. The hearing eventually continued without Bayne who was detained in the court cells below. Sentencing was deferred for social background and psychiatric reports. On 27 April 2011 Bayne was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum term of twenty years, for the murder and six years, to be served concurrently, for the second charge. He is currently detained at HMP Edinburgh.

Bayne launched an appeal against his conviction in August 2011, alleging a lack of evidence about Nelson's cause of death. The appeal was subsequently abolished.

The murder of Zoe Nelson was committed in the Cambusnethan suburb of Wishaw, North Lanarkshire, Scotland on 22 May 2010. Seventeen-year-old Zoe Nelson's extensively burned remains were found in woodland near a colliery spoil heap known locally as Monkey Hill after her killer constructed a pyre in an attempt to destroy evidence. Forensic pathologist Julia Bell told the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh that the possibilities for a full post mortem were "limited" because the body was too badly burned, but that "some form of throttling or suffocating was the most probable cause of death, which was recorded as 'unascertained'". During their enquiries, police used new media for the first time in a murder investigation, in an effort to reach out to local teenagers who may otherwise have not wanted to communicate with the police. During the trial it also emerged that the victim's sister had withheld the identity of the killer for five days. On 25 March 2011, 21-year-old Robert Bayne was found guilty of her murder and of a second charge of attempting to defeat the ends of justice. The judge deferred sentencing for psychiatric and social background reports to be prepared. On 27 April 2011 Bayne was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum term of twenty years, for the murder and six years, to be served concurrently, for the second charge.

At 4.20pm on Sunday 23 May 2010 an off-road motorcyclist spotted what he initially described as "a sort of charred tailor's dummy" in woodland at Monkey Hill, near Branchalfield Drive, Cambusnethan, Wishaw. As he approached he realised that it was actually a corpse. In his subsequent testimony he explained: "At first I thought it was a mannequin and what struck me was the leg, possibly the left leg. I could see bone there. Tailor's dummies don't have bones." The body was extensively charred, and he was unable to tell if it was that of a male or female. He immediately went to his nearby home and telephoned the police to report the discovery. When the police arrived he led them to the scene, which Detective Sergeant (DS) Clifford Neil of Strathclyde Police described as "gruesome." The body lay on a makeshift pyre and had heavy duty plastic sheet partly melted on to the facial area. Strathclyde Police launched a murder inquiry, led by Detective Superintendent (D/Supt) Derek Robertson of the force's Major Investigation Unit, on 24 May following the results of a post-mortem examination.

Just before 6pm on 28 May Robert Bayne walked into the police incident caravan at Wishaw and said he wanted to make a statement. The officer on duty, PC Robert Davie, said: "The male appeared to be quite intoxicated. He was slurring his words." Bayne said he had been to Motherwell several days previously and on the return journey a man called Stewart Campbell had got onto the bus. He told PC Davie: "I went up to Stewart Campbell and said to him 'Were you with Zoe on Saturday night?'" to which he claimed Campbell replied: "Aye, I killed her." As Bayne began to give a description of Campbell, police detectives walked into the caravan and immediately detained Bayne by snapping handcuffs on him. On the morning of 29 May Strathclyde Police issued a statement saying: "A 20-year-old man has been arrested and is presently detained in police custody in connection with the death [of Zoe Nelson]. A full report will be sent to the Procurator Fiscal." Bayne was detained in custody to appear at Hamilton Sheriff Court on 1 June 2010. At the subsequent brief court hearing Bayne made no plea or declaration and was remanded in custody. During police interviews following his arrest, Bayne insisted that the last time he had seen Nelson was on the morning of 22 May "after a chance meeting, when he went to a local newsagent to buy cigarettes." He claimed he then spent the rest of the day at home in Cambusnethan. At a preliminary hearing at the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh on 1 December 2010, Bayne entered not guilty pleas to all charges. A trial date was set for February 2011. On 8 January 2011 Bayne was transferred to HMP Greenock where he was segregated from the main prison population for his own safety.

Detective Constable (DC) Jennifer Bell, who had previously been seconded to the Metropolitan Police Service's SO15 Counter Terrorism Command, was brought into the inquiry to examine hours of recovered CCTV footage for sightings of Nelson. DC Bell, who had also used her skills in the aftermath of the 7 July 2005 London bombings and the 2007 Glasgow International Airport attack, eventually located an image of Nelson taken inside a Scotmid Co-operative store on Manse Road, Newmains at 5.30pm on 22 May. Police also received a confirmed sighting of her at 5.40pm on Cambusnethan Street, walking towards the Cambusnethan area. The CCTV stills of Nelson were released to the public on 27 May to jog potential witnesses' memories and police also announced that they had set up a page on Bebo "in a bid to engage with young people who may know something which could be useful to the inquiry" particularly those teenagers who may have been reluctant to speak directly to police. D/Supt Robertson explained that the police were using new media for the first time in a murder investigation as they believed that many of those who knew Nelson were teenaged or younger and may not have wanted their parents to know where they were at the time or what they were doing. He reassured potential witnesses that: "If there are people out there underage drinking, I don't care. If there are people where they shouldn't be, I don't care. This is a violent murder investigation and we need to solve it."