A fundraiser has been launched to buy the property where Aberdeen mum Jill Barclay was murdered – so it can be demolished.
Friends of the Aberdeen mum-of-two have set up a £100,000 crowdfunding campaign online to fund the project.
Jill’s partner of 20 years, Leon Grant, wants to raze the derelict Farburn Gatehouse in Dyce.
The 49-year-old has already agreed a price with the site’s current owners.
It was purchased at auction for £76,000 just days before Jill’s murder, by Glasgow-based businessmen Hafiza Abid and Shahzad Hassan.
They’d finalised the deal on September 2 last year.
Owners agreed to sell site
Dyce councillor Graeme Lawrence, with the help of councillor Tauqeer Malik, negotiated a deal on behalf of Mr Grant.
The owners have agreed to sell at cost, plus their commissions and legal fees at a total price of £87,000.
Now Mr Grant, with the help of some of Jill’s closest friends, has launched a gofundme page in order to finance the sale.
The target of £100,000 would also cover the costs of demolition and clearing the site.
A spokeswoman for the group of Jill’s friends behind the crowdfunder said they hoped the community would get behind the idea, adding: “Jill was such a good person, and got me through quite a difficult time when I had post-natal depression.
“We are doing this for Leon and the kids. We don’t want them to have the added stress and trauma of having to pass this house every day. We know Jill would not have wanted them to go through any extra upset.
“Those kids are going to grow up having to pass it every time they go to the train station or Asda, so we want to erase any bad memories – I just know that is a trauma she would not have wanted for her children.
“I don’t think anyone in Dyce wants that house to be there – it’s an unfortunate blot on Dyce and it has to go.
“Leon should not be penalised any further because of what happened to Jill at the hands of that person.
“He just should not be saddled with the extra financial burden getting rid of the house – he has already been robbed of so much.”
An unofficial gofundme page, which had been set up earlier this week, has been reported and taken down.
Members of the public are now being urged to only use the link here.
‘I hate driving past that house’
Gillian Gove, 45, was a close friend of Jill’s and is one of the people who helped raise funds for her family in the immediate aftermath of her murder.
“We were kindred spirits, and we were similar ages – and we just clicked. We weren’t friends for very long, we met as mums – but it was special,” Gillian said.
“I hate driving past that house, it’s sitting there like a ghost. The house just shouldn’t be there or left the way it is.
“Something nicer there, like a garden or planting would be better – make it a nice area and get rid of the horrible memories.
“It must be torture for Leon. It’s lovely that things have been left there by people to pay respects, and they are treasured – but it’s hanging on this dreadful thing that happened there.
“The police put the fence up to keep people out, but now after all that information has come out at the court case, its human nature or curiosity, I suppose, that some people might want to go and look.
“We all have imaginations, and on reading it through, it’s visual in my head – it must be horrendous for Leon.”
‘Knock it down so no one has to look at it’
Lifelong Dyce resident June Willox, 61, agrees the house should be erased.
She said: “No one who lives locally or knows what happened there would want to live in it. The best thing would be to knock it down so no one has to look at it every day.
“It’s horrific to think of what happened there – it must be a constant reminder to her family – and the wider community of Dyce.”
You can donate to the fund here.
For all the latest court cases in Aberdeen as well as crime and breaking incidents, join our Facebook group.