It was a horrific crime with an impact that stretched all the way from Malaga in Spain to Mastrick in Aberdeen.
And even though oil executive Stuart Hutchinson was sentenced to 24 years in prison in January 1992 after murdering his Aberdeen-born wife, Alice, he served only four of these and left the victim’s parents heartbroken.
Three judges at Malaga’s Palace of Justice ruled that the 47-year-old Shell executive had beaten her to death before slicing up and burning her body inside the couple’s luxury villa at Fuengirola in 1989.
They rejected Hutchinson’s claim that Alice, 38, whom he met in Aberdeen, had walked out after a domestic row and never returned.
The judges also ordered the killer to pay criminal damages of £55,000 each to Alice’s parents, Jim and Jean Davidson, and the two sons by her first marriage, David, 18, and Peter, 22.
But, as her parents reacted with fury at the belated confirmation of the brutal fashion in which their daughter had been taken away from them, they spoke passionately about how no amount of money would bring her back.
The distraught couple talked to the Evening Express 30 years ago about how they had feared for Alice’s safety ever since she met and married Hutchinson in 1981.
Choking back tears, Jean said: “He is a terrible man. We knew that he would kill her, that he was a psychopath.
“He loved money – that is all that he was interested in. If you didn’t have money, then he didn’t want to know.
“That’s why we don’t want any of his money, we don’t care how much it is.
“This sentence will never bring back our daughter, nothing will. We only have our memories in our hearts. And we are heartbroken.”
Jim added that he had harboured reservations about Hutchinson, a ‘prince charming with a wicked side’ for years before the murder took place.
He said: “Alice was such a beautiful person she could light up a whole room. She never deserved to suffer anything like this.
“It’s official for us that she is dead, yet I know I will never, ever get over it.
“But right now, I can’t be bitter any more, because it would kill me.”
Stuart Hutchinson was ice cold in court after murder
There was not the slightest sign of remorse or contrition from Hutchinson during the court proceedings in Spain.
On the contrary, the Press & Journal reported that he was flippant about escaping justice and making a swift return to his champagne lifestyle.
The paper said: “Throughout the two-day trial, Hutchinson was ice calm and confident. He said at one point that he would be skiing by February.
“He showed no emotion when the stomach-churning details of how he cut up Alice’s body in the bathroom with a saw and a knife and disposed of the bits after burning them over a 40-hour period was read out to the court.
“As the evil killer completed his grisly task, the couple’s teenage daughter Katinka was sleeping only yards away from her mother’s bedroom.
“But Hutchinson told her that her mother was sick and did not wish to see her.
“It was only when Alice’s father, retired painter Jim Davidson, travelled to Spain weeks after her murder in an effort to find his beloved daughter that Hutchinson’s web of lies and deceit was slowly exposed.”
This eventually led to the killer carrying out a chilling re-enactment of the murder in front of the police, a judge and forensic scientists – a procedure required by the court in the absence of a body.
The P&J concluded: “Today sees the start of a 24-year sentence in a grim Spanish prison for the former oil company executive.
“For Jim Davidson and his wife, it is the end of a heart-aching quest for the truth… and for justice for Alice.”
But it was nothing of the kind.
Hutchinson was released in 1996
Instead, and to widespread incredulity, Hutchinson was out of prison and had regained his liberty just four years later, in October 1996.
The killer’s lawyer, Pedro Apalategui, provided a bizarre glimpse into why he had been freed despite being convicted of such a serious offence.
Mr Apalategui said Hutchinson’s early release was partly because of his “exemplary behaviour” and explained that a controversial new penal code in Spain allowed for further sentence cuts if a prisoner was studying a career.
He said: “He told me some time ago he wants to stay and live in Spain and practise law. So I expected his early release and it is not surprising.
What on earth has justice come to when a murderer only ends up serving four years? You can get a longer sentence for drink-driving.”
Audrey Sutherland
“He worked hard at the law course while he was in jail. And you should also remember that my client spent a long time in custody awaiting trial.”
Understandably, in the circumstances, Jim Davidson could barely credit the news and described himself as “totally sickened” by the decision, which gave Hutchinson his life back at just 52.
He said: “He was sentenced to 24 years and, after what he did to my daughter, that is what he should have served.
“When I first heard that he was being freed, I was dumbstruck and I just could not believe it. I was praying that it was a hoax, but of course it wasn’t.”
Alice’s cousin, Audrey Sutherland, even wrote to the then Prime Minister, John Major, urging him to intervene in the case – to no avail.
She said: “Why did the Spanish authorities not contact Britain if they felt that they could not keep Hutchinson in a Spanish jail? And why was the killer not deported to this country?
“What on earth has justice come to when a murderer only ends up serving four years? You can get a longer sentence for drink-driving.”
The police sympathised with family
Detective Chief Inspector Alex Den, formerly of Grampian Police, was one of two officers who originally flew out to Spain in 1989, alongside his colleague, Detective Sergeant Gordon Thomson.
And, seven years later, he was among the many people who sympathised with the anger felt by Alice’s relatives at Hutchinson’s release.
He said: “What I feel is disappointment, more on behalf of the family than anything else.
“The trauma which they went through (after Alice went missing) was considerable and this will bring it all back once more.
“It will be very difficult for them to deal with.”
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