The children of Muriel McKay, whose body has remained undiscovered after her murder half a century ago, have been denied the ability to scan a location where they believe their mother’s body was buried.
Ian McKay and Dianne Levinson recently submitted a High Court injunction, asking a judge to order the homeowners of two neighbouring properties on Bethnal Green Road, east London to allow them to conduct a “ground-penetrating radar survey”.
Ms McKay’s family believe the remains are buried at the site, following new information coming to light.
One of the homeowners, Madeleine Higson, opposed the injunction bid, which would have stopped her and the owner of the other property, Janis Cross, from disturbing the garden.
Barristers for Ms Higson claimed she had been subjected to “borderline harassment” and caused “significant distress” by the McKay family in their efforts to find their missing mother.
It was claimed the children had attempted to gain access to the property through false representations.
In a ruling on Tuesday, Mr Justice Richard Smith said while Ms McKay’s kidnap and murder in 1969 was an “abhorrent crime”, his role was to consider the case “objectively and dispassionately”.
He said: “The claimants have not established that such relief is needed now, or why the usual pre-trial procedures should not be observed.”
The body of Muriel McKay has never been found
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He continued: “I was not persuaded that even if a survey was carried out, that it would be conclusive one way or the other, that it would produce incontrovertible data.”
“The evidence of the presence of Muriel McKay’s remains at the premises, such as it is presently, seems thin.”
Ms McKay, 55, was taken from her home in Wimbledon, south London, on December 29, 1969.
She was the wealthy wife of newspaper executive Alick McKay, and held for a £1million ransom after being mistaken for Anna Murdoch, the then-wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
Muriel McKay, the wealthy wife of newspaper executive Alick McKay, was kidnapped for a £1million ransom
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Brothers Arthur and Nizamodeen Hosein were arrested and found guilty of Ms McKay’s murder, and sentenced to 25 years and 15 years in prison, respectively, in one of the first murder cases in Britain to be brought without a body.
On Monday, the High Court heard how the family had received new information from a woman called Hayley Frais, whose father ran a tailor shop at the premises in Bethnal Green at the time of the killing.
It was heard Arthur Hosein was employed at the store.
Benjamin Wood, a representative for Mr McKay and Ms Levinson, told the court Ms Frais had claimed her father said on his deathbed he noticed a strong smell at the premises at the time of Ms McKay’s disappearance.
Mr Wood said police were not willing to excavate or survey the garden at the time as it did not meet their “evidential threshold”, but were “receptive to information” coming from any scan.
Callum Reid-Hutchings, representing Ms Higson, said while his client has “considerable sympathy” for Ms McKay’s family, there was no “proper legal foundation” for the injunction.
He said the survey would be a “significant intrusion into her private space and her right to peaceful enjoyment of her home”.
Mr Reid-Hutchings added it was “telling” the police had decided not to scan the garden.
He said the McKay family “cannot be said to come to the court with clean hands”, stating Ms Higson had been subject to a “bombardment” of requests to enter her property.
Mr Wood said the McKay family “offer their sincere apologies for the distress and inconvenience caused in relation to this deeply personal and sensitive matter”.
