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‘Life is not the same without her’ mother’s pain still as raw five years after Mary McLaren murder

Margaret McIntosh at her daughter's graveside.
Margaret McIntosh at her daughter's graveside.

The mother of tragic Dundee woman Mary McLaren says she still suffers “flashbacks and sleepless nights” five years after her daughter’s murder.

Margaret McIntosh told the Courier today that her grief will “never go away” and that she hopes the man who killed the mother-of-three dies in jail.

Speaking from Mary’s graveside on the fifth anniversary of the 34-year-old’s murder, Mrs McIntosh said: “I’ll never get over the death of my daughter. Life is not the same without her. I feel pain deep down in my heart just now.

“Mary wasn’t just a daughter to me, she was a great truthful friend and I trusted her. It doesn’t feel like five years. I just can’t believe that it happened.”

Mary was raped and murdered by convicted sex offender Patrick Rae after she disappeared following a night out in Dundee city centre in February 2010

Her disappearance sparked a huge police search, which ended two weeks later when her body was discovered on an embankment near the Ladywell Roundabout on March 10.

Rae was jailed for at least 20 years at the High Court in Edinburgh in 2011.

Mrs McIntosh said: “I’m still traumatised over what happened to my daughter. I just hope that the man that murdered my daughter suffers a lot in jail and he doesn’t come out alive,

“He took the love of my life away from me. He took a key from my heart because the three keys were my three daughters.

“I still have sleepless nights and flashbacks. I’ve been to counselling, but I didn’t feel they were helping me.

“Until the day I die, what I’m feeling for Mary will never go away.”

For more, see Thursday’s Courier or try our digital edition.