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, the first time a murder trial has ever been filmed in Glasgow High Court.

Filmed by Bafta Scotland award-winning director Matt Pinder, this ground-breaking 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.

Produced by Firecrest Films - the team behind the acclaimed BBC Scotland series Murder Case - this documentary series offers a compelling insight into the work of the police and prosecutors in bringing the two suspects to trial, shining a light on the work of the defence teams representing the two accused of Margaret’s murder.

In a co-commission between BBC Two and BBC Scotland, exclusive in-court access to this incredible case was granted by the Lord President of the Court of Session, the trial judge Lord Matthews, The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and Police Scotland.

Murder Trial: The Disappearance Of Margaret Fleming was commissioned by Patrick Holland, Controller of BBC Two, Clare Sillery, Head of Commissioning, Documentaries and David Harron, Commissioning Executive, Factual for BBC Scotland. The Commissioning Editors for the BBC are David Harron, Hamish Fergusson and Max Gogarty. The Executive Producers for Firecrest Films are Iain Scollay and Lorraine McKechnie. The series is directed by award-winning filmmaker Matt Pinder.

Murder Trial: The Disappearance Of Margaret Fleming is a Firecrest Films production for BBC Scotland and BBC Two.

The Margaret Fleming murder trial

Margaret Fleming, Victim
Edward Cairney, First Accused
Avril Jones, Second Accused
Lord Matthews, Judge, High Court of Scotland
Iain McSporran QC, High Court of Scotland Prosecutor
Thomas Ross QC, Defence Counsel for First Accused - Edward Cairney
Ian Duguid QC, Defence Counsel for Second Accused - Avril Jones
Background to the Margaret Fleming murder trial

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 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 Edward Cairney and Avril Jones, living in a remote coastal property in the village of Inverkip. But when police asked neighbours about Margaret, they were told she hadn’t been seen for nearly 20 years.

Just before Christmas in 1999 the then 19-year-old Margaret had seemingly disappeared. Yet not one person had reported her missing.

In the murder trial that unfolds across this two-part documentary series, 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, this is the story of a prosecution without a body and a community without answers.

Filmed both inside and outside of the courtroom, this case will take viewers deep into the inner workings of Scotland’s justice system, as a small community coming to terms with the prospect of a potentially brutal and calculated crime occurring unnoticed in its midst.