Murdered mum’s children fear ‘there’s still a bad man out there killing people’

Partner tells of kids’ trauma – as he plans to buy murder scene to raze it

MURDERED Jill Barclay’s children fear there is ‘still a bad man out there killing people’, her grieving partner has revealed.

The mother of two was murdered on her way home from a night out and was still alive when killer Rhys Bennett set fire to her outside a derelict property in Dyce, Aberdeen.

Her devastated partner Leon Grant has described how he has been left suffering PTSD and that the couple’s son, six, and daughter, eight, are so traumatised that they won’t let him leave their sight.

Mr Grant said he now plans to buy the derelict property where Ms Barclay, 47, was killed so that it can be demolished. The 49-year-old said he and Ms Barclay, who had been together for 20 years, had often spoken about what they would do if anything ever happened to either of them, and said: ‘We both said the

‘My son really misses his mum’

main thing was to make sure the kids were all right.

‘I know it will get easier over time, but my main priority now is the kids and protecting them.

‘I have always been a hands-on dad, so taking on that role isn’t a problem.

‘My son really misses his mum, he was a proper mummy’s boy. He just doesn’t understand, and my daughter has found it really difficult; she’s that little bit older.

‘They don’t like me leaving their sight – they think there is still a bad man out there killing people. They don’t like me walking anywhere on my own.’

Mr Grant is now in talks to buy and demolish the derelict Farburn Gatehouse where Ms Barclay died after the ‘unimaginably wicked’ attack last September. She had been walking home from a pub when Bennett, from Ballingry, Fife, attacked and raped her in the grounds of the property.

He kicked and stamped on her, hit her head against a pipe then sexually assaulted her before leaving, only to return with a can of petrol and setting fire to her.

Mr Grant said he is in discussions with the property’s owner to buy it so it can be knocked down. He said: ‘I wouldn’t want to put anything else there – I just want to see it flattened. That bloody house is just niggling away at me.’

Last week Bennett was given a life sentence with a minimum term of 24 years at the High Court in Edinburgh after admitting murder, rape and attempting to defeat the ends of justice.

Mr Grant said he had been told the details of Jill’s last moments by police officers at the time, but said the newly added rape charge and the guilty plea from Bennett had brought him back to ‘square one’.

He added: ‘I feel like I’m in a loop – the court case has just brought it all back. I’m reliving her last few hours over and over.

‘I was diagnosed with PTSD last year after it happened – I just could not fathom what happened to poor Jill.

‘I need to get some closure. We have found some kind of justice for Jill and the case is now closed. But it’s coming up for nearly a year now.

‘The police erected the green fence to try to protect the site but it’s time for it all to go.

‘There are some real weirdos out there who would want to go and take photos of it all I’m sure, now the details have come out about the drainpipe and what else that happened.

‘I’ve reached out to the Dyce in Bloom Gardening Club, I would maybe donate it to them. But I

‘I don’t want a memorial’

don’t want a memorial, not there where she was murdered.

‘Driving past the property is a constant reminder. The best thing for me would be to demolish it.’

Farburn Gatehouse was sold days before Jill’s murder.

A Land Registry search shows Hafiza Abid is the listed owner and he and business partner Shahzad Hassan had planned to refurbish the house and had not ruled out future commercial uses.

Mr Hassan has offered his condolences and said he would accept a ‘reasonable offer’.

Mr Grant would ‘never, ever’ move away, adding: ‘Jill and I bought this house together – so it has lots of memories. I couldn’t uproot the kids like that. My main priority is protecting them now.’