Accused nurse "not capable of hurting anyone"

THE FAMILY of one of the British nurses accused of murdering an Australian colleague in Saudi Arabia protested her innocence …

THE FAMILY of one of the British nurses accused of murdering an Australian colleague in Saudi Arabia protested her innocence yesterday, insisting she is "not capable of hurting anyone".

At a press conference in Dundee, Scotland, Ms Lucille McLauchlan's brother, John, described the events of the last week as "absolute hell" and said the family's thoughts were also with the relatives of the victim, Yvonne Gilford.

As his parents sat beside him weeping, Mr McLauchlan read out a prepared statement; "As you can imagine, the last few days have been absolute hell for my family. We have spoken to Lucy very briefly on the phone and she has assured us of her innocence.

"We are worried sick about her and are making efforts to secure the very best legal representation for Lucy ... We understand there could be a preliminary hearing quite soon but our efforts to find out exactly what is happening have been hampered by the public holidays."

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Ms McLauchlan (33), from Dundee, and Ms Deborah Parry (41), from Birmingham, were formally charged with the murder on Christmas Eve. Ms Gilford (55) was stabbed four times, hit with a hammer and smothered in her room at the King Fahd Military Medical Complex in Dhahran.

All three women worked at the hospital and were said to have been on a "late night out" a few hours before the murder occurred on December 11th.

Ms McLauchlan and Ms Parry were arrested after it was alleged they had been filmed on security cameras using Ms Gilford's cards during a shopping spree on December 18th.

According to reports in Saudi newspapers both women are alleged to have admitted the murder to British embassy officials. However, there are fears the two nurses may have been pressurised into signing a confession in exchange for phone calls to their families.

A Foreign Office spokesman dismissed the media reports as "speculation". He said British embassy officials had seen the women and they were being treated well.

If the two women are convicted they will be publicly executed. Under Islamic law they could be spared this if Ms Gilford's family were to ask for leniency. However, the victim's brother, Mr Frank Gilford, has supported the death sentence.

The families of both women plan to travel to Dhahran once it is established whether they will be able to visit their daughters.

Mr Stephen Jakobi, the director of Fair Trials Abroad, agreed that the women's families were right to be "extremely worried" as their protestations of innocence were in contrast with the Saudi authorities' claims that they had confessed.

The Saudi justice system is brutal and unfair. . .they won't get a fair defence unless there is a lawyer who can speak up for them, who understands the legal system and somebody to interpret for them so they can understand what is going on during the proceedings," Mr Jakobi said.