By Brian Smith

EMOTIONAL SCENES greeted a jury’s verdict at the High Court in Perth yesterday that the charge of murdering his mother, faced by 21-year-old Edinburgh man Sean Flynn, was not proven.

As the jury spokesperson announced the verdict there were gasps from the family of Louise Tiffney. Her father swore repeatedly at his grandson while his other daughters tried to quieten him and other male members of the family.

Formally discharged from the dock by trial judge Lord McEwan, Sean Flynn, who sat impassive while the verdict was announced, turned towards his mother’s family and shrugged, hands raised, palms held out towards them, as he was led away.

The jury had been out for seven and a half hours, encompassing two days and an overnight stay in a hotel.

Sean Patrick Tiffney, known as Flynn, had denied that he murdered his mother at their home in the Dean Village in Edinburgh on May 27 or 28, 2002, having previously evinced malice and ill will towards them. He also denied transporting his mother’s body in a car to an unknown location to conceal or dispose of it and cleaning the car in an attempt to defeat the ends of justice.

After the verdict, he again denied murdering his mother and said he hoped that she would still turn up alive.

He said, “I really don’t know how to describe it. I am just so relieved it is all over. It is 100 per cent relief. Now I need to get my life back together.

“I want to see my sister Hannah because I have not seen her for nearly three years and I miss her. I will see what happens with the rest of the family.

“I heard what they said and it’s obvious they don’t want to speak to me at the moment, but I would like to sort it out.

“I felt they have been listening to the police and getting one side of it for such a long time that it’s understandable I suppose.”

Asked about his grandfather’s outburst in court, he said, “He clearly doesn’t want to speak to me just now.

“I just want them to know that I didn’t kill my mum. I just had an argument with her, like I said in court, and then she walked out.

“I want them all to know that this has all been a lot of nonsense. I sure as hell did not kill her. Now I just want to go home and have a hot bath and some decent grub.

“I have been in jail for three years now and every day of it has been hard. The last few hours, waiting for the jury to come back, was nerve-wracking.

“The family have been looking for answers for a long time and they have been listening to the police telling them rubbish about me.”

Sean Flynn said he hadn’t spoken to his family for two years. He added, “I got a few letters from them while I was in jail, but they were mostly abusive. When the jury came back I thought it was a guilty verdict.

“But there were a few on the jury I felt I had made a connection with. It was only after they said the verdict my heart started thumping again.

“It has been a very strange day and a very strange three years. I won’t be back in a court again. I have told my dad I’m not even going to drop litter.

“My dad and my stepmum and my friends have been there for me. My friends have all gone to university and I want to visit their new houses.

“It has felt like the police have put their own spin on things. We heard how much investigation they had done but there were so many other things they never looked at.”

Still distraught after the verdict, the eldest of the five Tiffney sisters issued a short statement on behalf of the family on the steps of the courthouse.

June Tiffney said, “This is not justice for Louise. She is dead and there’s no doubt about that. Her name has been dragged through the mud by her own son and his father.”

With feelings still running high, there was a confrontation between some members of the Tiffney family and Sean Flynn’s father Keith. Another sister, Iris, ran after him, blaming him for saying in evidence that Louise Tiffney had considered prostitution to solve her financial difficulties.

A spokesman for Lothian and Borders police said last night they would still have to keep Louise Tiffney’s name on file as a missing person.

The Crown had cited 356 witnesses but fewer than 50 were called to give evidence in the course of a trial that was to run for 22 days.

It had been moved to Perth lest it be said Sean Flynn could not receive a fair trial in Edinburgh, where a previous court appearance—when he pleaded guilty to causing the death of a cousin and a friend by dangerous driving—and the massive hunt for his mother, who went missing in the week of his court appearance, attracted huge publicity.

He was subsequently sentenced to three years and nine months’ detention and was arrested three months before he was due for release as the missing person inquiry evolved into a criminal investigation.

A squad of four detectives had been established within a month of Louise Tiffney’s disappearance and their full-time brief was to find her or find evidence that she was dead. They were given six months to accomplish the task.

Huge searches were mounted involving divers trawling the Water of Leith, which ran outside her home, air reconnaissance and searches targeting specific areas using dogs trained to find bodies.

Every hospital and women’s refuge was sent her photograph, every government department that might have dealings with her was contacted and every reported sighting checked; but despite the huge operation, no trace of Louise Tiffney has been found.

Just over three weeks after her disappearance, police had taken possession of the car Sean Flynn had been using and discovered Louise Tifney’s blood in the boot.

Jurors heard expert evidence that the pattern of blood was consistent with a body being in the boot of the car.

A search of CCTV discovered images suggesting a car similar to the Nissan Almera being used by Sean Flynn was seen leaving and returning from the east of the capital in the early hours of May 28 and again leaving towards mid-day the same day in the same direction.

Mobile phone technology provided evidence from another expert witness that Sean Flynn’s mobile phone had been in use somewhere east of Tranent after mid-day on May 28.

In three statements to police during the missing person inquiry—once immediately before he was charged with murdering his mother—and again from the witness box Sean Flynn denied he had killed her.

He insisted she left the house around midnight on May 27 after an argument and that was the last time he saw her. He left their flat door unlocked expecting her to return and went to bed, where he stayed until woken by his sister Hannah the next morning.

After the verdict Lord McEwan waited until the public benches cleared before addressing the jury.

He said he deemed it necessary because at the end of a case he described as “sensational, important and trying, emotion spills over from one side or another, which is difficult to deal with for those involved and for you.”

Quoting Lord Denning, who, he said, was a hero to him, the judge told jurors, that he shared the belief that “juries are the light in the lamp of justice,” before thanking them for their diligence in a trial which had to endure winter weather, illness and a host of other difficulties.