Man guilty of park rape and murder

Apr 8 2009

A man has been found guilty of the "vile and barbaric" rape and murder of a businesswoman in a city park.

A jury at the High Court in Glasgow took around two hours to unanimously convict Marek Harcar of robbing, raping and killing sales adviser Moira Jones, 40.

Harcar, 33, of Slovakia, was jailed for life and told he would spend a minimum of 25 years behind bars.

He was also convicted of attempting to defeat the ends of justice by fleeing Scotland to Slovakia to avoid detection for the crime. Harcar was jailed for another three years for this offence, to be served concurrently with the life sentence.

As Harcar was led from the dock there were shouts of "beast" and "animal" from the public gallery.

Ms Jones, originally from Weston in Staffordshire, was attacked by Harcar after parking her car yards from her flat at nearby Queens Drive on the night of May 28, 2008.

She was taken into Queens Park and assaulted before being dragged deeper into the centre of the park. Her partially-clothed body was found by a park ranger lying face-down behind a privet hedge the following day.

The businesswoman had received at least 65 separate injuries as a result of "severe and sustained blunt-force trauma", her clothes were torn and her personal belongings were scattered around her.

The court was told Harcar has 13 previous convictions, four of which involved violence.

Harcar was also placed on the sex offenders' register and will be deported when he is freed.