The grieving partner of Jill Barclay has criticised Aberdeen City Council for not being more supportive of a failed community bid to buy and demolish the site where she was murdered.
Leon Grant spoke out after the owner of Farburn Gatehouse in Dyce told him he couldn’t wait any longer for campaigners to raise the necessary funds.
On Wednesday, Shahzad Hassan – who purchased the derelict property for £76,000 days before Jill’s death – revealed he now plans to move into the notorious house with his family.
He had been open to offers but donations to a crowdfunding site stalled after reaching just over £35,000, with Mr Hassan declaring that the process was taking “too long”.
Jill’s partner had previously appealed to the local authority for support but today told of his “horrendous” experience of receiving “absolutely no response to various letters and emails”.
He said: “It was a chance for the council to step in and do something good, but they backed off.
“It leaves a bitter taste in my mouth”.
The Press and Journal put Mr Grant’s criticisms to Aberdeen City Council but they have yet to respond.
Jill Barclay’s partner Leon Grant speaks out against lack of support for demolition of Dyce property
Mr Grant said that he had spoken with Mr Hassan on Tuesday and added: “He’s said the council haven’t got back to him so he’s been backed into a corner.”
The 49-year-old had been looking forward to a meeting next month to try to accelerate the fundraising drive.
He said: “It was to see if we could get a trust fund set up and try and get oil companies involved in that because they were reluctant to donate money to a GoFundMe page because of the legalities of that. It needed to be a trust fund.
“That was getting set up. But it was just meetings being organised and nothing getting done. It was really slow.”
Mr Grant praised Councillor Graeme Lawrence, who represents the ward of Dyce, Bucksburn, and Danestone, for backing the campaign to tear down the buildings.
He said: “Graeme Lawrence put in a bit of a shift and he did a lot behind the scenes, but he was in the same position as me – banging our heads off the wall with them folk, no responses to emails.”
Aberdeen City Council was asked on Wednesday afternoon to comment on the criticism levelled at the authority but did not respond by the Thursday morning deadline.
‘There’s no getting away from me passing that house’
Renovation work will be carried out on Farburn Gatehouse, where the 47-year-old proposals engineer for Petrofac was brutally raped and murdered in September 2022, for Mr Hassan to turn it into a family home.
“I’d take a positive from it because I think the green shed where Jill was killed will come down,” Mr Grant said. “She wasn’t murdered inside the house.
“She was murdered outside the front of that shed so I guess the refurb will involve that coming down. That’s the best I could hope for.
“It’s hard driving past there. I live around the corner. There’s no getting away from me passing that house.
“I’m just thinking about my kids growing up. When they start cycling further away from the house and we’re still in that neighbourhood my kids are going to be cycling round about there.
“It’s got a lot of baggage attached to it,” the father-of-two explained.
Mr Grant said he was understanding of Mr Hassan’s decision, adding: “I’ve exhausted all avenues and that’s just life. Life goes on, I guess.
“I can see the point of view of the guy who bought it. Obviously, it’s still costing him money sitting there empty.
“If the shoe was on the other foot I would be doing the same thing. He’s had an empty property for 15 months whereas I only started this GoFundMe page about five months ago.
“It’s a lot longer for him and we’ve got to realise that.”
But Mr Grant was critical of the announcement’s timing.
“What got me the most is, that he said to me a month ago that he was getting itchy feet then about what he was going to do,” he said.
“He said, ‘I’ll give you to the end of January’. That was a month ago, and then he phoned me two days ago and says, ‘I’ve changed my mind’.
“I was like, ‘Nice one mate, one week before Christmas. You could have just waited till after Christmas to tell me’.”
‘Shocking and shameful’ response to Dyce demolition proposal, concerned Aberdeen mum says
One Aberdeen city centre resident, who had supported the community buyout bid for demolition of the site said the lack of support was “shocking and shameful”.
Mum-of-two Mel Forrest said Jill’s horrific attack had “affected everybody”.
She said: “She was around the same age as me, got a couple of kids like me, worked in the oil and gas industry – same as me – and that could have easily been me or one of my friends.
“Even though I didn’t know her, I don’t know her family or her friends, it still hurts.
“Where is the support from the people who are meant to be representing us? It shouldn’t have been up to the family and the public to raise money.
“It’s shocking and it’s shameful.”
The concerned citizen also revealed that she had contacted local businesses, including oil giant BP, which is based near the scene of Jill’s murder, opposite the roundabout where Stoneywood Road meets Victoria Street.
“I said your staff are having to drive past that every day. Your customers are having to drive past that every day. Would you put in an anonymous donation?
“But I didn’t hear back from them. It makes you lose faith in humanity.”
P&J obtains council correspondence about funding demolition of Dyce murder scene
The Press and Journal has obtained correspondence between Aberdeen City Council officers and Councillor Lawrence.
They stated that – according to “colleagues in Legal and Corporate Landlord” – “Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) cannot be applied unless a decision has been made and the legal conditions are met”.
The officers added that “the purchase and demolition of private property is not deemed as an eligible activity” for the “UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF)”.
And they also commented: “A search was undertaken for additional funds which could be utilised but no programmes are currently available.
“The lack of legal status for the group does restrict the ability to apply for grants from public bodies.”
“Medieval and barbaric” Rhys Bennett, 23, of Ballingry in Fife, encountered Jill in Dyce’s Spider’s Web pub on the night of her murder.
He then stalked her as she walked home alone but killed her just 300 yards from the safety of the terrified woman’s front door.
In May, the killer was jailed for a minimum of 24 years for Jill’s assault, rape and murder, to which he pled guilty.
READ MORE: Owner of Jill Barclay murder house to turn it into his family home
Owner of Jill Barclay murder house to turn it into his family home
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