RELATIVES WHO gave evidence that he hated his mother and said it would be a good idea if she stopped breathing were wrong, a man accused of killing his mother told the High Court in Perth yesterday.

When it was put to him that it would be an extraordinary thing for them to make up, Sean Flynn countered, “It would be an even more extraordinary thing to say.”

Beginning his third day in the witness box, Sean Flynn was confronted by advocate depute Murdo MacLeod with statements by his grandmother and aunt that his mother told them he hated her.

He replied, “Certainly not. I hated the situation, I did not say I hated my mum.”

Mr MacLeod persisted, “You hated her so much she felt compelled to write you a letter, (regretting the change in their relationship and telling him she loved him) that is a measure of how much relations had deteriorated.”

He replied, “Yes, it is mum reaching out to me because I was in a bad place.”

Sean Patrick Tiffney, known as Flynn (21), denies that on May 27 or 28 he murdered his mother Louise at their home in the Dean Village in Edinburgh, having previously evinced malice and ill-will towards her. He further denied transporting her body in a car to an unknown location to conceal or dispose of her and cleaning the car in an attempt to defeat the ends of justice.

Mr MacLeod suggested he was in a bad state of mind because he learned he was facing a two-year custodial sentence on May 27. The accused replied, “That was at the lower end of the scale, right at the start it could have been six or seven (years), possibly more.”

The advocate depute continued, “You were facing a jail sentence imminently, you could not have been in the best frame of mind.” Flynn replied, “Yes, but generally I had been quite happy that day.” He added that by the time he reached home on the night his mother disappeared he was “tired and worn out.”

Referred to inconsistencies and elements in police statements he said were incorrect, he was asked if they arose from “sloppiness” on the part of police interviewing him.

When he answered, “I think it was a deliberate choice,” Mr MacLeod wondered if he thought police were out to get him. “I don’t know,” the accused replied.

Contradictions between statements to police and the evidence he gave in the witness box came about, the accused explained, because he had been doing his best to answer police questions and some information he gave came with the benefit of hindsight.

Mr MacLeod put it to him the “devil is in the detail and you are telling lies...you are justifying your position with regard to various inconsistent answers.” Flynn replied, “I am trying to clear things up.”

Asked how he could fail to notice his mother had gone out leaving her handbag and all her belongings, the accused said he was not looking for it.

“You weren’t looking for it and you weren’t looking for your mum because you had killed her.” The accused replied, “No.”

Having killed her, Mr MacLeod suggested, the accused only had two options—to phone the police and admit responsibility, or try to dispose of the body and he chose the second. The accused replied, “I didn’t kill her in the first place.”

Mr MacLeod said, “You could quite easily put your mother over your shoulder and carry her.” The accused replied, “I suppose so, yes.”

Mr MacLeod—“You stuck her poor body into that boot and headed off into the night.” The accused replied, “No, I did not.”

Re-examined by defence counsel Frances McMenamin QC, he agreed there was nothing to stop him disposing of his mother’s bag.

“If you are going to dispose of your mum, what’s to stop you taking the bag away?” he asked.

Forensic scientist Thomas Nelson said he compared paint flakes found in the boot of the Nissan Almera the accused was driving at the time of his mother’s disappearance with samples from the Tiffney flat but found no matches.

Neighbour June Collister said she saw Louise Tiffney vacuuming up after the decorator at 10.20 pm on May 27. She left for work at 5 am the next day and noticed nothing unusual in the stairwell or outside the block of flats.

The trial continues.