Missing Margaret Fleming 'had reading age of eight'

Margaret Fleming has allegedly not been seen for more than 19 years

A former teacher has told a murder trial that missing Margaret Fleming had a reading age of eight and struggled with writing.

Jacqueline Cahill, 56, taught Margaret standard grade English at Port Glasgow High School between 1994 and 1996.

She was giving evidence at the trial of Edward Cairney, 77, and Avril Jones, 59, at the High Court in Glasgow.

They deny murdering Margaret in Inverkip, between 18 December 1999 and 5 January 2000.

Margaret, who would now be 38, has allegedly not been seen for more than 19 years.

A huge police investigation to find Margaret was launched in November 2016 which involved a poster campaign and searches with police dogs and divers.

Mr Cairney and Ms Jones claim that Margaret left Inverkip in January 2000 with a member of the travelling community, but returned from time to time over the years to collect her benefit money.

Typed letters

Mrs Cahill, who now works for North Lanarkshire Council, told prosecutor Iain McSporran QC that in 2016 police showed her letters allegedly written by Margaret to Mr Cairney and Ms Jones.

One letter was headed as being sent from Carlisle on 9 January 2000, and the other two from the Regent Palace Hotel in London on 13 January 2000.

Mrs Cahill said: "It is not letters Margaret would be capable of writing. She had literacy difficulties. She struggled to put pen to paper. She struggled to read and read around about the level of an eight-year-old."

She told the court that Margaret needed a support teacher to help with her writing and added: "Margaret's level would be 100 words.

"A number of difficult words in the letters are correctly spelt and there is a stream of consciousness in the writing. Margaret could have written 100 words with short sentences and one idea.

"I would be doubtful about Margaret using a phrase like 'stopped in your tracks.' Her literacy skills were not great."

The jury was shown the three letters which were all typed. The first from Carlisle was signed Mags followed by six kisses and six hugs. In the other two, the name Margaret was typed.

Previous work

Defence QC Thomas Ross, who represents Mr Cairney, asked Mrs Cahill: "How did you get a look at Margaret's previous work to compare it to the letters?" She replied: I didn't have to, I could remember Margaret's school work."

Mr Ross then said: "From memory, you were comparing the ability of a child you had not seen for 21 years," and Mrs Cahill said: "That's true."

She added: "I do remember Margaret's work and I have every confidence saying this."

Mrs Cahill was asked if Margaret's reading and writing ability would have improved after she left school, and she said: "I would find that extremely unlikely."

The trial also heard evidence from retired teacher Elizabeth Brown, who was a learning support principal teacher at Port Glasgow High.

In a school report on Margaret in 1995, she wrote: "Margaret Fleming has moderate learning difficulties. She works fairly well to her ability but needs written instructions set out simply and gone over verbally."

Giving evidence, Ms Brown told the court: "If you left Margaret on her own she would do very little. You had to prod her to do the work. Her marks were all at the very bottom end of the school."

'A wee unit'

Another retired teacher Elaine Moore, 69, who taught at Port Glasgow High, also said Margaret had "moderate learning difficulties".

"She was quite isolated," she added. "Her and her dad were a wee unit. She was concerned about him and he was concerned about her."

The court earlier heard that Margaret was cared for by her mother for a time after her father Derek Fleming died in October 1995.

She then went to live with Mr Cairney and Ms Jones.

Mr Cairney and Ms Jones are also accused of defrauding £182,000 in benefits and attempting to defeat the ends of justice by claiming Margaret was alive.

They deny all the charges against them.

The trial before judge Lord Matthews continues.