SCOTLAND – A man accused of killing a Westlock woman in Scotland is scheduled in Glasgow High Court on Dec. 6 for a preliminary hearing.
Aren Pearson, 39, is charged with murder in the death of 24-year-old Claire Leveque.
“A Preliminary Hearing is scheduled for 6 December at the High Court in Glasgow,” Andrew Coyle, Media Relations Team for Scotland’s Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, said in an email on Nov. 25.
In Scotland, a preliminary hearing is a non-evidential pre-trial for cases that will be tried before the High Court of Justiciary to help the court determine whether the prosecution and defence are ready to proceed to trial.
Leveque’s murder shook residents of the remote tiny community of Sandness in Scotland's Shetland Island.
“Everybody was afraid because it’s so unusual for any violent crime like that to happen,” Tom Morton told Town and Country Today in a phone interview from Scotland on Nov. 26. “People were genuinely afraid. Before he was arrested, there was a lot of agonizing.”
Morton, who lives on the Shetland Islands, said Sandness, where Leveque was murdered, is extremely isolated. Sandness, with only about 20 houses, doesn’t even have a grocery store and residents usually travel about 25 miles to nearby Lerwick to get groceries, he said.
Morton said that Shetland is basically composed of a number of islands.
“There are three big islands and the biggest is called Mainland. Sandness, where [the murder] happened, is quite a remote corner of the west mainland. It’s a place where people go to escape. I think it’s fair to say that Shetland is a bit of a refuge for people looking to live very quietly.”
He said that people can try to live there very quietly but this never happens.
“The interesting thing is that people in the small community always observe people. They take a neighbourly interest and it’s a very supportive community too. If this woman had been looking for help, she would have found it but it sounds like a domestic situation that got out of hand.
“Many people come to Shetland and imagine that they will be unobserved, they imagine that what they do will be unnoticed but that’s very far from the case because people here tend to be very curious about other people's activities,” added Morton.
Police Scotland spokesperson Anita Collins said in an email on Nov. 27 that they issued three media releases in regard to Leveque’s murder.
The first release on Feb. 11 states that officers were called to the Sandness area around 4:55 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 11, for a report of a disturbance at a property. They said a 24-year-old woman was pronounced dead at the scene and a 39-year-old man had been arrested. He was taken to hospital for treatment.
A second media release from Scotland Police stated that the man arrested was to appear before Lerwick Sheriff Court on Thursday, Feb. 15.
In a third media release, Scotland Police identified the victim as Claire Leveque.