A mystery disappearance, a suspected secret guarded for 16 years, a murder trial in search of answers – two-part documentary Murder Trial: The Disappearance of Margaret Fleming has unprecedented access to the investigation and subsequent trial of co-accused Edward Cairney and Avril Jones.
Filmed by Bafta Scotland award-winning director Matt Pinder, this groundbreaking documentary takes the audience into the very centre of the trial at Glasgow’s High Court and beyond as carers Cairney and Jones face trial for the murder of 35-year-old Margaret Fleming.
Offering a compelling insight into the work of the police and prosecutors in bringing the two suspects to trial, the documentary also shines a light on the work of the defence teams representing the two accused of Margaret’s murder.
In 2016, an application for a Personal Independence Payment raised suspicions. When authorities couldn’t contact the applicant, the police were called, and it was discovered that a 35-year-old woman had seemingly vanished from a village on the west coast of Scotland. Margaret Fleming was a vulnerable adult understood by authorities to be in the full-time care of Cairney and Jones, living in a remote coastal property in the village of Inverkip. But when police started questioning Margaret’s friends and family, they were told no-one had seen her since 1999. In the 2019 murder trial that unfolds, Cairney and Jones stand accused of killing her, disposing of her body and claiming benefits in her name for 16 years.
With remarkable in-court access to an unfolding trial that gripped Scotland, Murder Trial: The Disappearance of Margaret Fleming tells the story of a prosecution without a body and a community without answers. Filmed both inside and outside of the courtroom, this case takes viewers deep into the inner workings of Scotland’s justice system as a small community is coming to terms with the prospect of a potentially brutal and calculated crime occurring unnoticed in its midst.
Series that captures the work of police, probation, prison, prosecution and parole all coping with difficult cases – managing risk to the public and themselves, with limited resources.
Anti-social behaviour covers a wide range of unacceptable
activity that causes harm to an individual, to their community or to
their environment. This could be an action by someone else that leaves
you feeling alarmed, harassed or distressed. It also includes fear of
crime or concern for public safety, public disorder or public nuisance.
Examples of anti-social behaviour include:
Nuisance, rowdy or inconsiderate neighbours
Vandalism, graffiti and fly-posting
Street drinking
Environmental damage including littering, dumping of rubbish and abandonment of cars
Prostitution related activity
Begging and vagrancy
Fireworks misuse
Inconsiderate or inappropriate use of vehicles
The police, local authorities and other community safety
partner agencies, such as Fire & Rescue and social housing
landlords, all have a responsibility to deal with anti-social behaviour
and to help people who are suffering from it.
If you are experiencing problems with anti-social behaviour, or have any concerns about it, or other community safety issues, you should contact your local council or call the non-emergency number, 101. In an emergency, call 999.
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are stressful or traumatic
experiences that can have a huge impact on children and young people
throughout their lives.
The ten widely recognised ACEs, as identified in a US study from the 1990s, are:
Abuse:
physical
sexual
verbal
Neglect:
emotional
physical
Growing up in a household where:
there are adults with alcohol and drug use problems
there are adults with mental health problems
there is domestic violence
there are adults who have spent time in prison
parents have separated
As well as these 10 ACEs there are a range of other types of
childhood adversity that can have similar negative long term effects.
These include bereavement, bullying, poverty and community adversities
such as living in a deprived area, neighbourhood violence etc.
We are committed to addressing all types of childhood adversity, and this is anchored in our long-standing, national approach of Getting it right for every child.
Why ACEs matter
Childhood adversity can create harmful levels of stress which impact
healthy brain development. This can result in long-term effects on
learning, behaviour and health.
Evidence from ACE surveys in the US, UK and elsewhere demonstrates
that ACEs can exert a significant influence throughout people’s life.
ACEs have been found to be associated with a range of poorer health
and social outcomes in adulthood and that these risks increase as the
number of ACEs increase.
Research from Wales found that people who reported experiencing four or more ACES are:
4x more likely to be a high-risk drinker
16x more likely to have used crack cocaine or heroin
6x increased risk of never or rarely feeling optimistic
3x increased risk of heart disease, respiratory disease and type 2 diabetes
15x more likely to have committed violence
14x more likely to have been victim of violence in the last 12 months
20x more likely to have been in prison at any point in their life
Consideration of ACEs is therefore crucial to thinking about how to
improve the lives of children and young people, to support better
transitions into adulthood, and achieve good outcomes for all adults.
What are we doing to address ACEs
As set out in the Programme for Government 2018 to 2019,
we are committed to preventing ACEs and helping to reduce the negative
impacts of ACEs where they occur and supporting the resilience of
children, families and adults in overcoming adversity.
We are take forward action in four key areas:
1. Providing inter-generational support for parents, families and children to prevent ACEs
2. Reducing the negative impact of ACEs for children and young people
3. Developing adversity and trauma-informed workforce and services
4. Increasing societal awareness and supporting action across communities
We held an ACEs ministerial event
in March 2018 in Glasgow involving people working across a wide-range
of related sectors and Year of Young People Ambassadors. This explored
what was working well, where further action is needed and opportunities
for collaboration.
Through our Getting it right for every child approach,
families and children can be supported by services to prevent and
reduce adversity and the negative outcomes associated with it.
We will build on our existing policies, including:
focusing on achieving equity in education through the Scottish Attainment Challenge and, in combination with the Pupil Equity Fund, allocating funding directly to schools to close the poverty-related attainment gap
putting children’s wellbeing first through the Child Protection Improvement Programme, keeping them safe from abuse and neglect by ensuring effective child protection procedures are in place
Our policies in the following areas are also relevant:
Addressing ACEs is also about better supporting adults who have been through adversity and trauma.
We are working with NHS Education for Scotland and have announced £1.35 million funding to deliver a national trauma training programme.
This will help Scotland’s current and future workforce develop skills
and services that respond appropriately to people’s adverse childhood
experiences and other traumatic experiences.
Consideration of ACEs is increasingly informing the development of national policy. For example, the Justice in Scotland: Vision and Priorities 2017 to 2020
identified ACEs as a key issue. A range of actions are being taken to
reduce their impact e.g. measures to reduce parental incarceration by
moving to a presumption against short prison sentences.
We are also working with the Scottish ACEs Hub (co-ordinated by NHS Health Scotland) which aims to raise awareness and understanding about ACEs and progress national action. For example, the Scottish ACEs Hub, in conjunction with Education Scotland, held a conference in March 2018 on addressing childhood adversity to support children’s learning and wellbeing.
Sociologists use different methods, theories and approaches to research and understand the social world. Functionalists and Marxist study how society influences the human behaviour. (Haralambos and Holborn, 2000, p. 9-13) In contrast, Social Interactionists interested in how individuals can shape society. (Haralambos and Holborn, 2000, p. 1056-1060) In his work C. Wright Mills (2000) argued that, there is an inter-relationship between ‘the history of society’ and the ‘life of an individual’. He made a connection between personal aspects and social, historical conditions. (Mills, 1959:3) Therefore, sociologist should study history, individuals and society structures at the same time, through the glasses of Sociological Imagination.
In his notion Mills (2000) describes social reality as a three dimensional entity. It is based on the biography of individuals, their personal, unique and private desires/troubles. It is influenced by the social structures, institutions and vice versa. From a historical aspect, events, processes and issues may influence the future of the individual and/ or the social structures. It is also heavily impacted by social and political power. (John D Brewer, 2004, p. 7) In reality for example, unemployment is a personal trouble, affecting one’s personal milieu, such as financially, psychologically, socially. This private problem could turn into a wilder social issue, if unemployment reach a larger scale, such as hundreds of people losing their job, because for example a factory shuts down. This could lead deindustrialisation in the area, recession and migration of the workers. Further, it links the country’s economy decline, affecting the industry (prices) and impacts the political landscape as well. (Buchan, 2018) With the Social Imagination sociologist can examine every aspect (individual, history and social-political structure) in context to each other to explain a public issue or a personal problem. It gives them the ability to shift their perspective, see the bigger picture and predict a future outcome based on their observations. It also providing a viewpoint from the social problem, showing where the structure needs change or alteration, such as make housing more affordable or have more welfare programs.
The importance of the Social
Imagination is not just that it gives an observed understanding of the world,
but encourage sociologists to connect personal experiences to society in a
context of history to explore public issues rigorously. (Gane and Back, 2012,
p. 405) Also, Mills’ ideas are universal to everyone who wants to see the world
in a different perspective and understand it better.
Unpaid work takes place all around Scotland. It allows people to settle their debt to society and build better lives for themselves, their families and communities. A sheriff can order individuals to do from 80 to 300 hours of unpaid work. We follow two unpaid work squads, over one day in Edinburgh.
Local farming is fading as profit margins decide what food makes it to our plates. The new Netflix documentary series Rotten exposes the fraud, corruption, corporate crimes and the consequences on our health of today’s global food industry. Nobody’s hands are clean.
Beyond Barriers 