Parents will take Claire's ashes to Paris

Published date24 April 2024
Publication titleStirling Observer
Claire Inglis' parents Ian and Fiona Inglis will head to the French capital with her young son next month because it's the place she had loved since a family holiday when she was 10

She had hoped to return one day with her little boy but instead he'll be there to help pay tribute to his mum.

But their planned journey falls days after a hearing in Edinburgh in which appeal judges will hear a plea by her killer Christopher McGowan, to have his sentence shortened.

The violent abuser, who had 39 previous convictions, including for violence and aggravated domestic assault against a former partner, was jailed for at least 23 years for torturing Claire to death at her flat in Cultenhove Crescent, St Ninians, in 2021.

Weeks after the trial in October, McGowan, 28, instructed his legal team to appeal his sentence.

Claire's mum Fiona, from Stirling, said: "It's a travesty that he was ever allowed to appeal. He tortured our daughter and we believe he should be locked up for the rest of his life.

"We have chosen to scatter Claire's ashes in Paris because we had family holidays there when she was 10 and she always said it was the best time of her life.

"She loved Tinkerbell and had always wanted to take her son there so we felt it was only right to lay her to rest there while her son and some of those who loved her were there.

"However it's awful to know that his appeal is set for the week before we go to Paris and we desperately want the right decision to be made and his appeal to be thrown out."

Fiona, 63, added: "Appealing shows he has no remorse for taking Claire's life and leaving her son without his mum.

"McGowan was a danger to women before he met Claire and there...

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