A 66-year-old Scottish carer who murdered a vulnerable teenager in her care and concealed the killing for nearly 17 years while fraudulently pocketing £182,000 in her benefits has died in custody at HMP Stirling.
The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) confirmed on Monday 9 November 2026 that Avril Jones, who had been serving a life sentence following her 2019 conviction for murdering 19-year-old Margaret Fleming, died at HMP Stirling on Sunday 8 November 2026. Her partner and co-accused, Edward Cairney, previously died in prison aged 82 in 2023.
Margaret Fleming had gone to live in Inverkip, Inverclyde, with Jones and Cairney—who had been friends of her father—following her father’s death in 1995. The last confirmed sighting of the vulnerable 19-year-old took place on 17 December 1999, and she is believed to have been killed around that time.
Despite her disappearance at the turn of the century, Margaret was not formally reported missing until 2016. Her vanishing had been concealed so thoroughly that at one stage during the ensuing investigation, Police Scotland officers asked Cairney and Jones whether Margaret had ever existed.
Between Margaret’s disappearance and the alarm finally being raised in 2016, Jones fraudulently claimed £182,000 in benefits on the teenager’s behalf. To explain her absence, the couple concocted a series of elaborate fabrications—claiming variously that Margaret had run off with a traveller, gone on to become a gangmaster travelling across Europe, and operated as a drug dealer using multiple aliases.
Following a major Police Scotland investigation, a jury convicted both Jones and Cairney in 2019 of murdering Margaret within three weeks of her final sighting on 17 December 1999. Despite sustained appeals from detectives and Margaret’s family over the years, neither Jones nor Cairney ever disclosed where they disposed of her body, and her remains have never been found.
Commenting following confirmation of Jones’s death in custody, Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay—who previously interviewed the killers during his career as a journalist—stated:
“Margaret Fleming was a vulnerable and innocent young woman who fell into the hands of two monsters. With both of her killers now dead, the only tears that should be shed today are in Margaret’s memory. The refusal of Cairney and Jones to ever reveal the location of her remains confirms that they didn’t possess an ounce of decency or compassion.”
In accordance with standard statutory procedure in Scotland following any death in prison custody, a Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) into Jones’s death at HMP Stirling is expected to be held in due course.
Image – Anonymous Artist Impression
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