(*12*)A drink-driver who killed a charity cyclist by hitting him and abandoning him by the aspect of the street and then hid the body has been jailed for 12 years.
(*12*)Alexander McKellar, 31, brought about the demise of 63-year-old Tony Parsons by hitting him together with his automobile on the A82 close to Bridge of Orchy, Argyll and Bute, on September 29 2017.
(*12*)Alongside together with his twin brother Robert, McKellar hid the body of Mr Parsons and his stays weren’t discovered for greater than three years.
(*12*)Initially charged with murdering the previous Royal Navy submariner, McKellar pleaded responsible to an amended cost of culpable murder on the Excessive Court docket in Glasgow final month.
(*12*)He and his brother additionally admitted making an attempt to defeat the ends of justice.
(*12*)McKellar was sentenced to 12 years behind bars when he appeared on the similar court docket on Friday.
(*12*)Robert McKellar was sentenced to 5 years and three months in jail.
(*12*)Members of Mr Parsons’s household, together with his widow Margaret and kids Mike and Victoria, had been in court docket for the sentencing.
(*12*)McKellar admitted driving on the A82 at “extra velocity and when unfit by alcohol”.
(*12*)With “reckless disregard” for the implications of his actions, he left Mr Parsons by the aspect of the street “in a distant location through the dead nights and in inclement climate”, inflicting his demise.
(*12*)Sentencing McKellar, Decide Lord Armstrong mentioned: “Alexander McKellar, on September 29 2017, you consumed alcohol and you probably did drive from there within the path of your property.
(*12*)“On the course of that night time you collided with Tony Parsons on the A82 who was driving his bicycle. The in depth harm to the entrance of your car is indicative of the power you hit him with.
(*12*)“He sustained a number of rib fractures and complicated pelvic fractures.
(*12*)“The reason for his demise is more likely to have been a results of impacted respiratory and a bleeding thorax.
(*12*)“Mr Parsons’s household have been deeply impacted and the emotional hurt is ongoing.
(*12*)“There may be nothing I can say or do to compensate for their loss.”
(*12*)In court docket final month, a story revealed how a while between September 29, 2017 and January 3, 2021, the McKellar brothers returned to the A82 and moved Mr Parsons’s body to the Auch Property, the place they lived and labored as farmhands, and buried him with an excavator in a peat bathroom the place animal carcasses had been disposed of.
(*12*)Police launched a significant investigation following a tip-off from a girl McKellar had begun a relationship with in 2020, the court docket heard.
(*12*)The girl had requested him if there was something from his previous that will have an effect on their relationship, and he informed her he had hit Mr Parsons with an Isuzu D-Max pick-up whereas dashing.
(*12*)Advocate depute Alex Prentice KC informed the court docket that McKellar had mentioned to the lady that he had been “distracted” by headlights and struck one thing on the aspect of the A82, which turned out to be Mr Parsons.
(*12*)The girl, who was in court docket for the sentencing, left a can of Purple Bull within the space the place Mr Parsons’s body had been hidden and detectives later discovered the scene.
(*12*)The brothers additionally hid Mr Parsons’s bicycle behind a waterfall on the Auch Property however this has by no means been recovered, the court docket heard.
(*12*)The 2 males had been arrested on December 20, 2020 and Mr Parsons’s body was recovered for forensic investigation in January 2021.
(*12*)Mr Parsons was killed whereas on a 100-mile charity cycle from his house in Tillicoultry, Clackmannanshire, to Fort William.
(*12*)A lacking individuals inquiry was launched on October 2, 2017 when he didn’t return house.
(*12*)In a mitigation submission, defence lawyer Brian McConnachie KC mentioned: “Mr McKellar is properly conscious of the household’s views.
(*12*)“There isn’t a apology he can tender that can ever be acceptable to them.
(*12*)“He needs me to point he deeply regrets the trauma he put the household by.”
(*12*)Mr McConnachie informed the court docket McKellar had suffered psychological well being points on account of his actions on the night time of September 29, 2017.
(*12*)He added: “The one rationalization he provided and the one rationalization that is smart is just concern and panic.
(*12*)“In his personal phrases, he accepted he behaved in a wholly egocentric and cowardly method.”
(*12*)John Scullion KC, representing Robert McKellar, mentioned in mitigation that he had turn out to be concerned out of a “misplaced loyalty” to his brother.
(*12*)Mr Parsons’s household launched a press release after the responsible pleas, saying he liked “nothing extra” than spending time together with his grandchildren.
(*12*)The assertion mentioned: “As you possibly can think about, not realizing what has occurred to somebody and then the devastating information that we had been supplied has taken its toll on all of us as a household.”
(*12*)They mentioned “eventually justice has been performed”, and thanked everybody concerned within the investigation.
(*12*)The McKellar twins gave the impression to be upset as they had been led away in handcuffs to serve their sentence.
