Homeowner opposes search for murdered woman's body

Brothers Arthur and Nizamodeen Hosein were convicted of Muriel McKay's kidnap and murder in 1970

A homeowner has opposed a search of her property for the remains of a woman who went missing in 1969, the High Court has heard.

It had been thought Muriel McKay's body was hidden on a farm at Stocking Pelham in Hertfordshire, where she was held by kidnappers, but police searches failed to find her.

The family now believe the remains could be in the shared garden of two properties at Bethnal Green Road, east London, and have asked the court to issue an injunction which will allow a "ground-penetrating radar survey".

However, one of the homeowners, Madeleine Higson, opposed the bid due to a lack of legal foundation for the search.

Ms McKay was kidnapped in the mistaken belief that she was the then-wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

Two men were convicted of her murder and jailed, but her body has never been found despite one of the killers telling the family he believed he knew where it was.

Callum Reid-Hutchings, for Ms Higson, said in written submissions that "sympathy, however deeply felt, cannot displace the requirement for a proper legal foundation for the relief sought".

"The applicants have not identified any authority establishing that personal representatives possess a common law right to enter private property to search for remains, let alone to obtain a mandatory injunction compelling such access," he said.

"The applicants' stated objective of providing evidence to the police could be achieved by the police themselves conducting a scan if they considered it appropriate.

"The fact that they have not done so is telling."

The Met Police said no further searches would take place after a large operation at a farm at Stocking Pelham in Hertfordshire in 2024

Mrs McKay was officially declared dead by a High Court judge earlier this month.

This was part of the family's pursuit for an injunction to search for her remains.

Earlier this year, the family offered a £1m reward for new information, at which point they were told the body could be at a property in Bethnal Green.

Benjamin Wood, for Ms McKay's children, Ian McKay and Dianne Levinson, told the hearing in London: "The police are not willing to excavate this space as matters stand, because it does not meet their evidential threshold.

"The police are not willing to carry out a ground-penetrating radar survey of the sort that is the subject of the present application.

"The police are receptive to information coming to light as a result of the survey, which would or might cause them to reopen their investigation."

Mr Wood said the survey would be "professionally organised" and Ms McKay's family had offered the homeowners a "temporary decamping" to a hotel during any the survey if they wanted it.

The hearing before Mr Justice Richard Smith is due to conclude on Tuesday afternoon.