Drink-driver who killed cyclist Tony Parsons jailed for 12 years alongside twin who buried body
25.08.2023 - 09:55
/ dailyrecord.co.uk
A drink-driver who killed charity cyclist Tony Parsons by hitting him and abandoning him by the side of the road has been jailed for 12 years. Alexander McKellar, 31, has been sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow.
McKellar caused the death of the 63-year-old grandad by hitting him with his car on the A82 near Bridge of Orchy, Argyll and Bute, on September 29, 2017. Originally charged with murdering Mr Parsons, McKellar pleaded guilty to an amended charge of culpable homicide.
After hitting Mr Parsons, he and his brother, Robert, went on to return to the A82 and moved Mr Parsons’ body to the Auch Estate and buried him with an excavator in a peat bog where animal carcasses were disposed of. The twins admitted attempting to defeat the ends of justice when the case called at the High Court in Glasgow last month.
Alexander McKellar was sentenced to 12 years behind bars when he appeared for sentencing at the court on Friday. Robert McKellar was sentenced to five years and three months in jail.
The court heard last month how a major investigation was launched by police after officers received a tip-off from a woman McKellar had begun a relationship with in 2020. She had asked him if there was anything from his past that may affect their relationship, and he told her he had hit Mr Parsons with an Isuzu D-Max pick-up while speeding.
Advocate depute Alex Prentice KC told the court that McKellar had said to the woman that he had been “distracted” by headlights and struck something on the side of the A82, which turned out to be Mr Parsons.
The woman marked the burial site with a can of Red Bull, where Mr Parsons' body was later discovered. The brothers also hid Mr Parsons’ bicycle behind a waterfall on the Auch Estate, however his