Murder of Zoe Nelson

Zoe Nelson, a 17-year-old motor vehicle repair student at Motherwell College, lived with her mother, stepfather and younger sister in Newmains, on the eastern edge of Wishaw, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. On the evening of 22 May 2010, Nelson and her 16-year-old sister, Laura Anne, argued outside their family home over both being involved with the same man, 20-year-old Robert "Rab" Bayne. Nelson left with Bayne and was not seen alive by her family again. CCTV and witness sightings later placed her with Bayne in Newmains and Cambusnethan that evening, with several witnesses describing him as drunk, agitated, and behaving aggressively toward her.

On 23 May 2010, an off-road motorcyclist discovered a badly burned body in woodland near a colliery spoil heap known as Monkey Hill, close to Branchalfield Drive, Cambusnethan. He initially mistook it for a mannequin before realising it was a corpse and alerted police. Strathclyde Police, led by Detective Superintendent Derek Robertson, launched a murder inquiry. The body had been placed on a makeshift pyre with plastic sheeting partly melted onto the face. Forensic examination found evidence of assault, including bruising and bleeding inside the skull, and forensic pathologist Julia Bell told the High Court of Justiciary that "some form of throttling or suffocating was the most probable cause of death," though the extensive burning made a definitive determination impossible; the cause of death was officially recorded as unascertained. DNA from a tequila bottle and its lid found near the body matched both Nelson and Bayne, with forensic scientist Marie Campbell citing odds of 9.6 million to one against the DNA in the bottle's lid belonging to anyone other than Bayne.

During the investigation, police used online platforms, including a Bebo page, for the first time in a Scottish murder inquiry to encourage teenagers who might be reluctant to speak with officers to come forward. On 28 May 2010, Bayne walked into the police incident caravan in Wishaw to make a statement and was arrested. It later emerged at trial that Nelson's sister Laura Anne had been shown the body by Bayne the morning after the killing but withheld this information from police for five days, only disclosing it in her third statement on 28 May.

Bayne's trial took place over fifteen days at the High Court in Edinburgh in March 2011. He was charged with murder and with attempting to defeat the ends of justice by disposing of clothing and Nelson's phone and threatening Laura Anne. He did not testify. On 25 March 2011, a jury unanimously convicted Bayne on both charges; he reacted violently in the dock, assaulting a security guard and verbally abusing Laura Anne. On 27 April 2011, Bayne was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of twenty years for the murder, plus a concurrent six years for the second charge. His subsequent appeals against conviction and sentence were unsuccessful, with the sentence appeal dismissed on 6 January 2012. It was later reported that Bayne had been released from prison, following a conviction for assault and robbery, only seven weeks before the murder.